The Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it has intercepted N1.4billion worth of illicit drugs including tramadol, said to have been concealed with food flasks and kitchen utensils.
This coming barely a week after the customs service in other relevant agencies of government destroyed 48 containers load of tramadol, codeine and other psychotropic drugs.
According to the Customs Area Controller (CAC), Compt. Yusuf Malanta
said the 20ft container with registration number SUDU-7538656 was intercepted based on intelligence.
He said, “On 21st of July, 2022, acting on incredible intelligence, our officers successfully intercepted a 1 by 20ft container with number SUDU-7538656 manifested as 272 cartons of stainless steel hotpots.
“It was captured and declared as cooking appliances, measuring/checking instrument and furnace burners to evade arrest. The said container was positioned, opened and jointly examined with relevant agencies and found to contain 55 Cartons of Tramadol concealed in food flasks.
“Each carton of Tramadol contains 50 rolls, each roll contains 10 packs and each pack contains 10 sachet of Tramadol.
“For the avoidance of doubt, our action of impounding this container is in line with the provisions of Sections 46 and 47 of Customs Excise Management Act (CEMA) Cap 45, laws of the federation of Nigeria 2004.”
The customs warned that agencies of the federal government will not relent in bringing the full weight of the law on recalcitrant stakeholders bent of injuring the wellbeing of Nigerians and by extension giving the country a negative image.
“I call on all stakeholders in the trade supply chain to always abide by the extant rules. It is pertinent to reiterate our resilience in ensuring that the importation of such illicit hard drugs are detected, seized and handed over to the appropriate agency for further regulatory action.
“Furthermore, I would like to use this medium to advice importers, agents to acquaint themselves with import/export prohibition guidelines to safeguard the nation’s economy and security,” he stated.
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