Again Customs Thwart Gunrunners Bid to Traffic 204 Rifles into Nigeria

BY FUNMI ALUKO

In a fresh crackdown on illicit arms trafficking, the Tin-Can Island Port Command of the Nigeria Customs Service intercepted a 20-foot container containing 204 MAS 49 ALTER MAGNUM pump-action rifles and an assortment of spare components shipped from Turkey aboard the vessel MV Algeciras Express.
The illicit weaponry, which arrived under container number TEMU 184536/9, was fraudulently disguised as used household items—including furniture, refrigerators, solar panels, and detergent, accompanied by falsified documentation regarding the consignee’s true identity.
Following a 100 percent physical examination driven by risk profiling and credible intelligence, technical teams from the Customs Armament Unit and the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons assembled the knocked-down firearm parts to expose the full scale of the shipment, which also contained dozens of spare trigger pins, locking lugs, charging handles, pistol grips, and barrels.
Representing Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, Deputy Comptroller-General T. Bomodi handed over the seized armaments to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons under the Office of the National Security Adviser, noting that this major recovery closely follows an earlier interception at the same command involving 399 pump-action rifles. Maritime analysts and security authorities highlight that this operation underscores a persistent tactical pattern where international trafficking syndicates attempt to exploit West African maritime corridors using knocked-down components hidden in commercial cargo, while demonstrating that the Nigeria Customs Service is shifting its focus from physical border seizures to tracking documentation trails, prosecuting local conspirators, and strengthening inter-agency security collaboration to dismantle the entire illicit supply chain from origin to final destination.