Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted a total of 31,124, 600 pills of tramadol 225mg and bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N17.9 billion in street value at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers state and Tincan seaport in Lagos.
The seizures were made following intelligence processed by the Agency on the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India, leading to a demand for a 100 percent joint examination of the watch-listed containers with the Nigerian Customs Service and other sister security agencies.
A breakdown of the seizures shows that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at Tincan port in Lagos on Thursday and Friday, August 29 and 30, 2024.
According to NDLEA, each of the two containers had 175,000 bottles of the opioid.
Meanwhile, Femi Babafemi, NDLEA Director of Media & Advocacy, in a statement on Sunday, said, “At the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, NDLEA operatives equally intercepted a total of 447 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing Twenty-Nine Million Eight Hundred and Forty Thousand (29, 840,000) pills of the opioid as well as 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on Thursday 29th August.
“The tramadol shipments came under different brand names such as Royal Tapetadol, Carisoprodol 225mg and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride 225mg.
“The following day, Friday 30th August, another set of three containers watch-listed by NDLEA were subjected to joint examination. At the end of the exercise, a total of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup containing 554,600 bottles of the opioid were recovered from them.
“This brings the total bottles of codeine seized at Onne, Rivers and Tincan in Lagos to 1,284,600 bottles worth N8,992,200,000.00 in street value while the combined seizure of tramadol stood at 29, 840,000 pills valued at N8,940,000,000.00.
“In the same vein, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers state on Tuesday 27th August arrested a suspect, Eze Emekan Don, while attempting to board a Cronos airline flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea with 1,490 pills of tramadol concealed and packaged as cosmetics of different brands inside his luggage.”
“His attempt to compromise the officers to evade arrest was rebuffed,” it added.