The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Special Area command, Tincan Island Port, has arrested 21 suspected drug traffickers and intercepted 28,622.389kg of illicit drugs.

The agency’s narcotics commander, Mohammed Abubakar, disclosed this in a statement in Lagos on Thursday.

Mr Abubakar said the arrests and interceptions were from January 2024 to June 2024. He said 14 arrested suspects had been on trial before the Federal High Court, Lagos Division.

“Seizures of approximately 28,622.389 kilogrammes of various illicit drugs, including cannabis indica or Canadian loud weighing 2,232.999 kilogrammes, were made,” he said.

The commander said that the seizures were an increase of 261.9 per cent over those recorded by the command in the last six months of 2023.

Included also is a seizure of Heroin weighing 79.39 kilogrammes and 26,310 kilogrammes of Barcadin cough syrups with codeine (i.e. 175,400 bottles of 100ml each). A monetary exhibit of N6 million is also a bribe offered by a suspect to thwart the seizure of 7.5 kilogrammes of Canadian loud.

He added that the command impounded vehicles and containers used to conceal the drugs or carry out smuggling activities. The commander reaffirmed the command’s commitment to the global fight against drug trafficking, particularly in the maritime domain.

He said that since the beginning of 2024, the command had undertaken a series of robust operations that significantly disrupted the activities of drug trafficking syndicates on the coastlines and maritime corridors under its area of responsibility.

Mr Abubakar said that the most notable seizure was a combined seizure of heroin weighing 56.39k made from two containers. He described it as the highest single seizure of heroin ever recorded in the maritime domain in Nigeria.

Mr Abubakar said that both containers came from Durban, South Africa, and were declared as personal effects.

He said that the command also made a single seizure of 1,072kg of cannabis indica from a container shipped from Montreal, Canada, and falsely declared as containing three units of used vehicles.

(NAN)