Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have again intercepted another batch of seven containers bearing 1,229,400 bottles of the codeine worth over N9,835,200,000 shipped from India at Onne ports in Rivers State.
This development came barely three weeks after seizing 6,125 cartons of codeine syrup containing 1,050,000 bottles of the opioid worth over N7, 350,000,000 in street value, at the Port Harcourt Ports complex, Onne.
According to a statement signed by the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, on Friday, the latest seizure was made on Thursday.
He said, “This seizure is the fourth and last set of such consignments that have been under the watchlist of the Agency’s Maritime Special Operations Unit Targeting Team, which worked in partnership with the Port Harcourt Ports Command of the Agency and other security agencies including the Customs Service for a 100 per cent joint examination of the targeted containers.
“This followed credible intelligence and months of diligent tracking of the consignments from their port of departure. At the joint examination of the containers with other security agencies on Thursday, all seven containers were found bearing a total of 8,774 cartons of codeine-based cough syrup with 1,229,400 bottles weighing 184,410 kilogrammes.
“A breakdown of the shipments that came from India via the Maersk Vigo Vessel shows that the container marked SEKU 6439421 has 875 cartons with 175,000 bottles of codeine weighing 26,250kg.”
The statement added that four other containers contained 175,000 bottles of the same substance each in addition to other items such as chilli cutters, cartons of hyregra tablets and diclofenac used to mask the shipments.
In his response to the latest seizure, the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig Gen Buba Marwa (retd.) praised the support received from other stakeholders at the ports that enabled the seamless and successful operations in the course of targeting the shipments.
“The operation, which had inflicted heavy losses on the cartels behind the shipments has further degraded their capacity and financial base,” he said.
