BY BRIGHT JACOB
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have seized 126 parcels of Canadian loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, weighing 63 kilograms, concealed in a used Toyota Corolla car imported from Toronto, Canada at the Tincan seaport in Lagos.
A similar attempt by a freight agent, Mordi Chukwuemeka, to export to Kenya 900 grams of the same substance, loud, hidden inside the walls of a travelling bag containing food items, was thwarted by NDLEA officers at the SAHCO export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos on Saturday, April 29.
The spokesman for the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi made the revelations on Sunday in a statement.
Babafemi said, “When Mordi presented the bag, which he claimed contained food items for export; operatives noticed that in the course of searching the consignment, the side walls of the bag were unevenly bloated, after which they dismantled the false packing and recovered the illicit substance.
“The previous day, Friday, April 28, operatives at the Tincan port intercepted 63kg Canadian loud packed in bags in the boot of one of the five used vehicles in a container marked, TLLU4840762 coming from Toronto via Montreal, during a joint examination with other stakeholders at the port.
“Similarly, men of the agency’s Directorate of Operations and Investigation, attached to courier firms also on Thursday, April 27, intercepted 1.53kg skunk concealed in old hard drives meant for export to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.”
Babafemi further noted that in Benue, operatives recovered 859 bottles of Codeine-based Syrup weighing 117.3kg abandoned by a suspected dealer about two kilometres away from NDLEA checkpoint along Enugu – Otukpo road on Wednesday, April 26.
“Two suspects Kabiru Muhammed, 35, and Isah Muhammed, 28, were arrested with 20 blocks of cannabis weighing 11.2kg concealed in a bag of cassava flakes (garri) along Zaria-Kano road, Kano on Friday, April 28.
“No fewer than seven bags of cannabis with a gross weight of 74.5kg were recovered when operatives raided an uncompleted building located in a bush in Ala town, Akure area of Ondo state,” he added.
Also, 60kg of the same substance concealed among footwear in two jumbo sacks was recovered from one Aminu Mohammed along Ibadan – Oyo road, Oyo state while waiting to board a vehicle to Kebbi State.
In Adamawa State, NDLEA operatives on Saturday, April 29, while production was ongoing, raided a clandestine factory in Mubi, where a new psychoactive substance, Akuskura, was being produced in large quantities and distributed to Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic.
