National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted consignments of Captagon, popularly known as the “Jihadi drug”, and millions of opioid tablets worth more than N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
Gatekeepers News reports that NDLEA said the Captagon shipment was seized on August 22 following the arrest of 49-year-old Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, a suspected cross-border drug trafficking kingpin who arrived in Lagos from Accra, Ghana, aboard an African World Airlines flight.
A search of his carton of locally made bathing soap, popularly known as “Ghana Soap”, uncovered 47,200 Captagon pills concealed inside the soap. The agency valued the consignment at more than N1.5 billion. Aikins reportedly told investigators that he was expected to deliver the drugs in northern Nigeria.
In a separate operation at the airport, NDLEA operatives, working with the Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders, recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg, with a combined weight of 2,787.40kg and an estimated street value of more than N4.6 billion.
The opioid consignments were found abandoned at the MMIA import shed. Three consignments containing 900,000 Tramaking tablets arrived from Bangladesh aboard RwandAir flights, while another containing 3,000,030 Tapentadol tablets arrived from Amsterdam on a Qatar Airways flight.
NDLEA also reported the arrest of a 31-year-old US returnee, Sowunmi David Oludotun, in Lekki, Lagos, after he allegedly arrived to collect 3.35kg of “Loud”, a potent strain of cannabis imported from the United Kingdom.
NDLEA Chairman Mohamed Buba Marwa commended the agency’s operatives for the seizures and directed them to sustain efforts against drug trafficking networks.
