The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted consignments of Captagon, popularly known as the “Jihadi drug,” and millions of opioid tablets with a combined street value of more than N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
The seizures were made during separate operations at the airport, according to the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
In the first operation, NDLEA operatives arrested a 49-year-old suspected cross-border drug trafficker, Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, who arrived in Lagos from Accra, Ghana, aboard an Africa World Airlines flight on August 22.
A search of a carton of local bathing soap, popularly known as “Ghana Soap,” allegedly found in his possession uncovered 47,200 pills of Captagon concealed inside the blocks of soap.
The agency valued the Captagon consignment at more than N1.5 billion.
Captagon is an amphetamine-based stimulant that has become widely associated with illicit drug markets and armed groups in parts of the Middle East. The NDLEA said the drug earned the nickname “Jihadi drug” because of its reported use in funding extremist activities in conflict zones.
According to the NDLEA, Aikins allegedly told investigators that he was supposed to deliver the consignment to northern Nigeria.
The agency said Captagon was first intercepted in Nigeria by the NDLEA in September 2021 at the Apapa Port in Lagos.
In a separate operation at the same airport, officers recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg, weighing a combined 2,787.40 kilogrammes.
The opioid consignments were valued at more than N4.6 billion and were recovered from four abandoned consignments at the airport’s import shed.
Three of the consignments contained 900,000 Tramaking tablets, weighing 815.40kg, and arrived on RwandAir flights from Bangladesh. The fourth contained 3,000,030 Tapentadol tablets, weighing 1,972kg, and arrived on Qatar Airways from Amsterdam.
Post a Comment