Sunday, July 21, 2024 -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.
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