THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has intercepted over 11, 785, 800 tablets of Tramadol contained in 607 cartons in Lagos State.
According to NAN, Jonah Achema, the agency’s Head of Public Affairs disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday.
“This was discovered in another container number TCNU 9465832 belonging to the same suspect transferred to NDLEA by the Police,” Achema quoted Muhammad Abdallah, the NDLEA Chairman as said.
He added that this was the third case of using containers to conceal and smuggle Tramadol and other prohibited drugs into the country.
“This is making it three containers used to carefully conceal illegally imported Tramadol and other medicines to Nigeria,” he added.
Achema noted that the interception was aided through the inter-agency collaboration between the NDLEA and the Nigeria Customs Service, Apapa Command.
The NAN reports that another 40-foot container examined had revealed 255 cartons of different types of Tramadol and other banned medicines on August 19.
Achema said the agency has discovered a thread of prohibited drugs being smuggled into the country from an Asian country to a European country then into Nigeria.
He observed that the recent discovery of more Tramadol using the same route from Pakistan Asia – Hamburg, Europe – Nigeria showed the dynamic system of operation by the drug cartel to beat security operatives.
“This discovery is a major breakthrough in the fight against illegal importation of Tramadol into Nigeria
Earlier in 2018, the agency had seized about 500 million Tramadol tablets at the Apapa port in Lagos.
Following several interceptions, the Apapa port has become a hot spot for the smuggling of prohibited drugs into Nigeria.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94