Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Four freight agents and a wine shop owner have been apprehended by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) over the importation of smuggled bottled Cannabis juice into the country.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the spokesman of the agency, Mr Femi Babafemi, stated that the suspects were arrested at the SAHCO import shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
He disclosed that Cannabis juice, with a gross weight of 16.50kgs on Wednesday, December 23, was discovered during a search of consolidated cargo from South Africa.
Investigations by anti-narcotics officers subsequently led to the arrest of the four freight agents: Mr Soremekun Olalekan Wasiu; Mr Olufisayo Dayo; Mr Moruf Olusegun Bashir, and Mr Imole Moses Ajayi, whose statements eventually led to the arrest of the consignee, a wine shop business owner, Mr Emebede Chuka, the following day Thursday, December 22.
Also, the NDLEA has seized consignments of Colorado concealed in vehicles imported from Montreal, Canada and packs of cannabis juice flown in from South Africa, meant for distribution ahead of the Christmas festive season.
This was intercepted at the Tincan seaport, Apapa and the MMIA.
Mr Babafemi further revealed that the NDLEA also recovered 152 kilograms of skunk from two dealers in Kano; 100,000 pills of Tramadol in Imo state and 520kgs of cannabis hidden in soft drinks crates loaded in a truck coming to Abuja, the nation’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Also, an attempt to export quantities of cannabis and ecstasy pills known as MDMA concealed in the beverage drink, Bournvita, containers to Dubai, UAE, through the NAHCO export shed on Friday, December 23, was frustrated while a vulcanizer given the assignment for a fee of N4,000, and Mr Iyanda Ogunleye Yaya has been arrested.
In the same vein, a consignment of 185 parcels of cannabis Indica, popularly called Colorado, weighing 61.3kgs, have been seized during a joint examination of a container at the Tincan seaport, Lagos.
The container marked MSCU5206726 from Montreal, Canada, was declared as containing three units of used vehicles, but upon a 100 per cent examination, it was found to contain two vehicles; a 2009 Toyota Corolla car and a 2009 Ford Econoline bus as well as used car engines, bicycles, shoes and other items including the drugs. Two dock workers: Mr Abdulquadri Abdulazeez and Mr Ogbuji Kenneth, are already in NDLEA custody in connection with the seizure following their initial arrest by Port Security and the Police.
Meanwhile, in Kano, two suspects, Mr Nura Zakariya’u and Mr Alkasim Abubakar, were arrested along Zaria-Kano road, Kwanar Dangora, with 161 blocks of cannabis weighing 152kgs and various quantities of Exol and Codeine-based syrup, while a total of 100,000 pills of tramadol were recovered from a suspect, Mr Amaechi Johnson in Imo state on his way to Onitsha, Anambra state.
Similarly, a total of 708 kilograms of cannabis were recovered by operatives from a bus at Ehinogbe, Owo area of Ondo state on Tuesday, December 20.
