NDLEA Seizes N12.4bn Cannabis at Lagos Port, Busts Drug Syndicate Targeting Passengers

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a 40-foot container loaded with 4,959 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis valued at N12.397 billion, at the Apapa Port in Lagos.

The seizure followed more than four weeks of intelligence-led surveillance and was carried out on June 23 during a joint examination involving officers of the NDLEA Apapa Strategic Command, the Nigeria Customs Service, other security agencies and port stakeholders.

According to the agency, the container, which also contained a Ford and Nissan vehicle, had been under surveillance since departing Toronto, Canada, on April 25. The shipment moved through Montreal, Morocco’s Tanger Med Port, Tin Can Port and eventually Apapa Port, where it was intercepted.

In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives arrested a 38-year-old businesswoman, Iwebema Ogechi Peace, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Beijing, China.

She was found with 7.5 kilograms of cocaine concealed in the false bottom of her suitcase. The suspect told investigators she regularly travelled to China to purchase goods for sale in Nigeria.

The agency also uncovered a syndicate allegedly planting illicit drugs in the luggage of unsuspecting passengers at motor parks.

The investigation began after NDLEA operatives intercepted a commercial bus travelling from Nnewi to Abuja and recovered 467.7 grams of methamphetamine hidden inside a passenger’s luggage. Subsequent investigations led to the arrest of the intended recipient, bus loaders and the alleged owner of the drug consignment.

Elsewhere, NDLEA operatives arrested 57-year-old Ikechukwu Uwakwe in Lagos with 209.5 kilograms of Scottish Loud concealed in a consignment bound for Enugu.

Three suspects transporting 558,900 pills of Tramadol concealed in a specially fabricated compartment inside a truck from Togo through the Benin Republic were also arrested.

Additional operations led to the seizure of 118 kilograms of skunk along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the arrest of two women in Amukoko, Lagos, with 28.8 kilograms of skunk.

NDLEA Chairman, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended officers involved in the nationwide operations and urged them to sustain efforts against drug trafficking while continuing public sensitisation campaigns under the agency’s War Against Drug Abuse initiative.