Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it recorded its first-ever seizure of illicit drugs shipped from Thailand through the maritime corridor, following the interception of two containers of cannabis indica, also known as Loud, at the Apapa and Lekki ports, with a combined street value put at over N4.4bn.
A statement on Sunday by the agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said “both containers were loaded at the Port of Laem Chabang, Thailand, underscoring the emergence of a new trafficking route being exploited by drug syndicates to smuggle synthetic cannabis into the country”.
At the Apapa Port, Babafemi said a container, declared to be conveying dry fish, rice, vehicle spare parts, turmeric soap and inverter batteries, was found, during a joint examination of the shipment on Friday, August 21, by NDLEA, Customs and others, to contain 1,090.5kg of Thai Loud packed in 54 cartons comprising 2,181 sachets of 500 grams each.
“At the Lekki Deep Sea Port, a similar container, which had been placed on the agency’s watchlist and monitored by its Marine Special Operations Unit, was jointly examined on Wednesday, 19th August. Of the seven pallets found in the container wrapped in black nylon, four were confirmed to be laced with Thai Loud, yielding 96 cartons made up of 400 parcels weighing a total of 400kg. The remaining three pallets contained 798 rims of A4 paper, which had been used as cover for the consignment,” he said.
