By Opeyemi Adelakun
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has uncovered a major drug trafficking operation involving illicit substances concealed in everyday household items, including locally made bathing soap popularly known as “Ghana Soap”.
The agency said it intercepted 47,200 pills of Captagon, popularly referred to as the “Jihadi drug”, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, with the consignment estimated to be worth more than N1.5 billion.
The seizure was made on Saturday, August 22, following the arrest of a 49-year-old cross-border drug trafficker, Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, who arrived in Lagos from Accra, Ghana, aboard an African World Airlines flight.
According to NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, operatives became suspicious of a carton carried by Aikins and subjected it to a search.
The inspection revealed that the Captagon pills had been concealed inside blocks of bathing soap.
The suspect reportedly told investigators that he was expected to deliver the consignment to a destination in northern Nigeria.
Captagon is an illicit amphetamine-based substance that has gained notoriety for its reported use among armed groups in conflict zones. NDLEA said the drug was first intercepted in Nigeria in September 2021 at the Apapa Port in Lagos.
Nearly 4 million opioid pills abandoned at airport
In another major operation at the same airport, NDLEA operatives recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg.
The two consignments weighed a combined 2,787.40kg and were valued at more than N4.6 billion.
The drugs were found in four abandoned consignments at the import shed of the airport after no individual came forward to claim them.
NDLEA said three of the consignments contained 900,000 tablets of Tramaking, weighing 815.40kg, and arrived on RwandAir flights from Bangladesh.
The fourth contained 3,000,030 tablets of Tapentadol weighing 1,972kg and was brought into the country aboard Qatar Airways from Amsterdam.
The agency said the consignments were kept under surveillance before they were formally retrieved during a joint examination involving NDLEA officials, the Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders on Friday, August 28.
US returnee arrested with cannabis in Lagos
The agency also reported the arrest of a 31-year-old United States returnee, Sowunmi David Oludotun, in the Ikate area of Lekki, Lagos.
Oludotun was arrested on August 19 when he allegedly arrived to collect 3.350kg of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, which NDLEA said had been imported from the United Kingdom.
Cocaine, heroin recovered from safe in Rivers
In Rivers State, NDLEA operatives raided a drug hotspot in the Abuja Down/Up area of Port Harcourt.
Among the items recovered during the operation was a fireproof iron safe, which the agency said was opened with a welding machine on August 25.
Inside the safe, operatives recovered 237g of Colorado, 316g of cocaine and 10g of heroin.
Over 1,000kg of cannabis intercepted
In Ondo State, three suspects identified as Oyedele Daniel, 42; Taye Saliu, 36; and Kehinde Saliu, 36, were arrested along the Ipele-Idoani Road on August 28.
NDLEA said the suspects were found with 728kg of skunk concealed in a truck marked KRE 120 XB.
Two other suspects, Uche Joseph, 35, and Godwin Umeh, 21, were arrested at Aponmu Forest on August 26 with another 341kg of skunk.
In Delta State, the agency said more than 176,000 pills of assorted opioids, including tramadol and Molly, were recovered during two separate interdiction operations between August 26 and 28.
Marwa orders sustained crackdown
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), commended officers involved in the operations and urged them to maintain pressure on drug traffickers.
Marwa particularly directed operatives to remain alert to increasingly sophisticated methods of concealing illicit substances.
He stressed the need for the agency to sustain its balanced approach to drug control while continuing to target traffickers who exploit ordinary household items to move narcotics.
Meanwhile, the NDLEA said its War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation campaign continued in several states during the week, with awareness programmes held for students, youths and other members of the public.
The agency said the campaigns included engagements in Gombe, Kano and Edo, while its Ondo and Taraba commands also carried out advocacy visits to the state governors.
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