A multi-billion naira contraband has been intercepted by the Nigeria Customs Service laden in a container carrying truck at the Ago palace way axis of Lagos State.
The 40ft drug-laden container carrying twenty cartons of tapentadol drugs, a new variant of tramadol worth N1,560 Billion from India was intercepted by customs officers from the Apapa Premier Command.
According to the Customs Area Comptroller of Apapa Command, Compt Yusuf Malanta, while showcasing the seizure at the Classic Bonded Terminal at Ago Palace Way, on the 1st of December, 2022, the cargo arrived at Apapa port on July 3rd, 2022, and the customs have been monitoring it’s movement ever since.
The container was declared as Chocolate by its owners, but on examination, cartons of Ok POP sweets were discovered while drugs were carefully hidden at the back of the container.
Giving a breakdown of the seizure, Malanta said came in 225mg and 120mg. The importer cleverly concealed the drugs at the back of the container, just to undermine officers. 20 cartons of the drugs were found and each of the 225mg had 838,500 tablets while the 120mg had 9,010,000 tablets.
These drugs are deadlier than normal tramadol, you can imagine the havoc they would cause if they had escaped into the market. These kinds of drugs contravene sections 64, 46, and 47 CEMA Act. Therefore tracking and intercepting them was a great achievement for the customs as well as the NDLEA.
He noted that due to the unrelenting stance of the customs and its collaboration with NDLEA, Tramadol drugs now find it very difficult to come into the country and that the supply is now very difficult, compared to previous years.
Assuring that even though arrests were not made on the seizure, the investigation is still ongoing, and customs already have a substantial amount of evidence on the people involved in the importation.
The Commander of NDLEA in charge of Apapa Command, Ishiaku Yusuf Kwajaffa said that the milligrams written on the drugs were just a cover-up, adding that the Tapentadol is three times more potent than the normal tramadol.
He also said that the new variant is new to the NDLEA and that this is the first time the agency is coming across it.
The twenty cartons are worth N1.560 billion, and each carton of tramadol is worth N78 million but has now been made scarce for them to reach.