NDLEA intercepts illicit hard drugs worth N17.9billion as wanted ex-Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture surrenders

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have announced the seizure of a total of Thirty-One Million One Hundred and Twenty-Four Thousand Six Hundred (31, 124, 600) pills of tramadol 225mg and bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over Seventeen Billion Nine Hundred and Thirty-Two Million Two Hundred Thousand Naira (N17, 932, 200, 000.00) in street value at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers state and Tincan seaport in Lagos.

NDLEA intercepted the proscribed items following intelligence processed by the Agency on the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India. This led to a demand for a 100 percent joint examination of the watch-listed containers with the Nigerian Customs Service and other sister security agencies.

Statement by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, said a breakdown of the seizures shows that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at Tincan port in Lagos on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th August 2024. Each of the two containers had 175,000 bottles of the opioid.

He added that , “At the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, NDLEA operatives equally intercepted a total of 447 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing Twenty-Nine Million Eight Hundred and Forty Thousand (29, 840,000) pills of the opioid as well as 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on Thursday 29th August. The tramadol shipments came under different brand names such as Royal Tapetadol, Carisoprodol 225mg and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride 225mg.”

“The following day, Friday 30th August, another set of three containers watch-listed by NDLEA were subjected to joint examination. At the end of the exercise, a total of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup containing 554,600 bottles of the opioid were recovered from them.

“This brings the total bottles of codeine seized at Onne, Rivers and Tincan in Lagos to 1,284,600 bottles worth N8,992,200,000.00 in street value while the combined seizure of tramadol stood at 29, 840,000 pills valued at N8,940,000,000.00.

Similarly,  NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers state on Tuesday 27th August arrested a suspect, Eze Emekan Don, while attempting to board a Cronos airline flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea with 1,490 pills of tramadol concealed and packaged as cosmetics of different brands inside his luggage. His attempt to compromise the officers to evade arrest was rebuffed.

Meanwhile, a wanted ex-beauty queen, Ms. Aderinoye Queen Christmas also known as Ms. Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye surrendered to the Lagos Command of the Agency after about eight months in hiding.

She was declared wanted by the Agency in January after she escaped from her Lekki, Lagos residence when NDLEA operatives raided her apartment at Oral estate, Lekki on Wednesday 24th January following credible intelligence she deals in illicit substances. The suspect was Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and founder of Queen Christmas Foundation. Recovered from her apartment, according to the anti-narcotics agency, include 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of drugs packing plastics, a black RAV 4 SUV marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and her picture frame among others.