As part of effort to make smuggling less lucrative, the Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has declared zero tolerance to smugglers who use unapproved routes, most especially the Idi Iroko and other illegal routes in the state.
Customs Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Haruna Mahmoud has declared that any vehicle intercepted by his office would no longer be on detention list, but outright seizure.
As part of effort to make smuggling less lucrative, the Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has declared zero tolerance to smugglers who use unapproved routes, most especially the Idi Iroko and other illegal routes in the state.
Customs Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Haruna Mahmoud has declared that any vehicle intercepted by his office would no longer be on detention list, but outright seizure.
The controller made this known in his 2nd quarter report of the command in Ogun State even as he added that the aim is to discourage the influx of vehicles, which have been used for smuggling purpose.
According to him, vehicles that were documented as being on ‘detention list’ in case they are wrongly intercepted, allows owners or importers to present their particulars of such vehicles, before they they would be released.
‘’It is now history as the service would intensify strategies to make smuggling less lucrative and less attractive to the smugglers;’’, he said.
Mahmoud said that officers have stepped up their efforts, he promised to run smugglers of vehicles and other items through the command’s jurisdiction out of business.
US Coast Guard Offloads $93 Million Of Seized Cocaine at Coast Guard Base Miami Beach, Florida
The Coast Guard Cutter Legare has offloaded approximately 2,800 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated wholesale value of more than $93 million 0n 4th September, afternoon at Coast Guard Base Miami Beach, Florida.
The offload is a result of two successful drug interdiction in the Caribbean since August 23.
While on routine patrol, the crew of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection marine patrol aircraft spotted a go-fast vessel with suspicious packages aboard north of the Gulf of Uraba on Aug. 23. Deployed armed helicopter crews from the Coast Guard Cutter Bear and Coast Guard Cutter Legare were launched and located the suspected smuggling vessel. During the pursuit, the helicopter crewmembers witnessed the suspected smugglers jettison several packages into the water.
A smallboat crew from the cutter Bear arrived on scene with the now stopped go-fast vessel and conducted a boarding. Four suspected smugglers were taken into custody, and 32 bales of contraband, which later tested positive for cocaine, were retrieved from the water. The Bear crewmembers destroyed the go-fast vessel as a hazard to navigation.
During a second interdiction, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection marine patrol aircraft crew spotted a suspicious vessel off the coast of Panama Aug. 28. The crew of the Legare boarded the 165-foot Panamanian-flagged coastal freighter Hope II, and through a search of the ship, located approximately 1,493 kilograms of contraband, which tested positive as cocaine. The eight crewmembers aboard the Hope II and the vessel were taken into custody and will be turned over to U.S. officials for further investigation.
These interdictions were part of Operation Martillo, which is one component in the United States government’s whole-of-government approach to countering the use of the Central American littorals as transshipment routes for illicit drugs, weapons and cash. Operation Martillo is an international operation focused on sharing information and bringing together air, land and maritime assets from the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as Western Hemisphere and European partner nation agencies, to counter illicit trafficking.
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