THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says its operatives have intercepted a total of 31,124,600 pills of tramadol (225mg) and bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N17,932,200,000.00 in street value at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers State, and Tincan Seaport in Lagos.
NDLEA reported that the seizures were made following intelligence processed by the Agency on the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India, leading to a request for a 100 percent joint examination of the watch-listed containers with the Nigerian Customs Service and other sister security agencies.
This was announced by Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, on Sunday.
Babafemi disclosed that a breakdown of the seizures shows that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at Tincan Port in Lagos. Each of the two containers had 175,000 bottles of the opioid.
He also stated that NDLEA operatives intercepted a total of 447 cartons of tramadol (225mg) containing 29,840,000 pills of the opioid, as well as 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne.
Babafemi further stated that the tramadol shipments came under different brand names such as Royal Tapentadol, Carisoprodol (225mg), and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride (225mg).
According to the statement, another set of three containers watch-listed by NDLEA were subjected to joint examination, resulting in the recovery of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup containing 554,600 bottles of the opioid.
Babafemi said the discovery brings the total bottles of codeine seized at Onne, Rivers State, and Tincan in Lagos to 1,284,600 bottles, worth N8,992,200,000.00 in street value, while the combined seizure of tramadol stood at 29,840,000 pills valued at N8,940,000,000.00.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State, arrested a suspect, EzeEmekan Don, while attempting to board a Cronos Airline flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with 1,490 pills of tramadol concealed and packaged as cosmetics of different brands inside his luggage. His attempt to bribe the officers to evade arrest was rebuffed.
Meanwhile, a wanted ex-beauty queen, Ms. Aderinoye Queen Christmas, also known as Ms. Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, has surrendered to the Lagos Command of the Agency after about eight months in hiding. She was declared wanted by the agency in January after escaping from her Lekki, Lagos residence when NDLEA operatives raided her apartment at Oral Estate, Lekki, on Wednesday, 24th January, following credible intelligence that she deals in illicit substances.
NDLEA announced that the suspect was Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and founder of the Queen Christmas Foundation.
“Recovered from her home during the search, witnessed by estate officials, were 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of drug packaging plastics, a black RAV 4 SUV marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and her picture frame, among other items.
“The suspect, who claimed she had been hiding in Akure, Ondo State, since January when she escaped arrest in Lekki, Lagos, surrendered to the Agency on Wednesday, 28th August,” Babafemi said.
