Desperate attempts by transnational criminal organisations to flood Nigerian communities with large quantities of assorted illicit drugs during the yuletide season have been thwarted by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, who intercepted millions of tramadol 225mg pills, thousands of codeine syrup bottles and bags of Canadian Loud in consignments arriving the country ahead of the Christmas celebration.
The Director of Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, revealed this on Sunday in a statement he issued.
Babafemi said at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, all tricks employed by the drug syndicates to smuggle into the country 7,500,000 pills of tramadol 225mg through the NAHCO import shed of the airport were frustrated by NDLEA officers with the cooperation of operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders.
The consignment, which was taken into custody on December 22, 2023 came onboard a Turkish airline with no country of manufacture or origin.
Apart from being the first time such shipment would be seized on the airline’s flight, it was equally the first of such coming from Hamburg, Germany.
The 7.5 million tramadol 225mg pills were also specially designed and packaged as tamol-x concealed in 100 big cartons weighing 7,150kg, which arrived in the country on December 11, 2023 and placed under surveillance until last Friday.
Preliminary tests of the tablets proved positive to tramadol hydrochloride.
In the same vein, operatives of the Lagos Command of the Agency on December 20, 2023 conducted a search operation on two shops marked Chex Mat Global Link Limited at Trade Fair complex in Ojo area of Lagos, where 258 cartons of codeine-based cough syrup and eight cartons of codeine tablets were recovered.
The cartons contained: 49,200 bottles of codeine syrup and 46,200 tablets of same opioid.