Operatives of the the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have intercepted a shipment of 11.5kgs of skunk substance to the United Kingdom concealed in a giant wooden sculpture.
This is even as the NDLEA said no less than 37.5 kilograms of such illicit consignments were intercepted in the past week, with the arrest of 11 suspects in interdiction operations that led to the seizure of almost four tons of skunk in Kaduna, Kano and Lagos States.
A breakdown of the operations and arrests as released by the spokesperson of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, showed that at the Lagos Airport, a freight agent Ogunsina Damilare, was arrested on Friday, January 6 following a bid to export 1.5 kilograms of skunk hidden in foodstuffs to Dubai, UAE through the SAHCO export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).
At the Tincan Port in Lagos, a shipment of 24.5kilograms of cannabis indica to Nigeria from Montreal, Canada was intercepted by operatives while an N8million bribe offered NDLEA officers by the importer has been secured in an account for the prosecution of the case.
While the importer, Cedrick Maduweke is still at large, one of his accomplices, Steve Isioma Adigwe, has been arrested.
The consignment was hidden in a used Toyota Sienna vehicle that arrived the port along with three other cars in a container marked MSMU 5082733.
A total of 3,672 kilograms of cannabis sativa were recovered from two locations and five suspects arrested in Kaduna during separate raid operations.
The NDLEA said the suspects arrested at a warehouse at Rido village on Wednesday, January 4 included: Edward Emmanuel, 28; and Miracle Madu, with 298 bags of C/S weighing 3,576kgs.
Investigations revealed that the consignment was moved from a southern state to Kaduna in a truck bearing petroleum product.
Also, two other suspects: Sunday Bassey, 29 and Jessica Daniel, 14, were nabbed with 96kgs of same substance at Gonin Gora area of the state, while Sanusi Isah, 30, was arrested on Saturday 7th January at Giwa area with over 12,000 tablets of Tramadol 225mg and Diazepam.
In Kano, NDLEA operatives on Saturday, January 7 intercepted Kabiru Abdulhamid, 40, with 119 blocks of C/S weighing 73kgs at Semugu area, while a total of 28,400 tablets of tramadol and over 230kgs of cannabis were seized in raid operations in Festac town and Lagos Island areas of Lagos state.
