NDLEA arrests Canadian woman with cannabis, seizes N9bn opoids
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 41-year-old Canadian woman, Adrienne Munju, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos for allegedly importing a large consignment of ‘Canadian Loud’, a strong strain of synthetic cannabis. The suspect was arrested during the inward clearance of passengers on a flight from […]
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 41-year-old Canadian woman, Adrienne Munju, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos for allegedly importing a large consignment of ‘Canadian Loud’, a strong strain of synthetic cannabis.
The suspect was arrested during the inward clearance of passengers on a flight from Canada at the Terminal 1 of MMIA on Thursday.
Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, said that during a joint examination of her three bags, Adrienne who was coming to Nigeria for the first time was found with 74 parcels of the illicit substance weighing 35.20kgs stuffed in two of her three bags.
“In her statement, she claimed she was recruited to traffic the consignment through an online platform for 10,000 Canadian dollars upon successful delivery in Lagos.
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“She said she took the offer because she needed the money to pay for her ongoing master’s degree programme in Canada,” Babafemi said.
Also, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports, Onne in Rivers State intercepted 13,298,000 pills of opioids including Tramadol, Tramaking Quick Action Tramadol, Tamol-X, Royal Tapentadol and Carisoprodol as well as 338,253 bottles of codeine cough syrup, all worth over N9bn in street value.
The opioids were recovered in three containers coming from India, targeted by the NDLEA during a joint examination of the cargoes with men of the Nigerian Customs Service and other port stakeholders on Wednesday and Thursday.
Similarly, NDLEA operatives at the Tincan seaport in Lagos on Thursday intercepted 100 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 50kgs.
The consignment was reportedly packed in 20 parcels each in five jumbo bags concealed in a container with four units of imported vehicles that came from Canada.
The container had earlier been cleared out of the ESS Libra Bonded Terminal in Ikorodu but based on credible intelligence, NDLEA operatives were able to trace it to a warehouse in Ikorodu where the illicit consignments were discovered in one of the imported vehicles, a Toyota Sienna bus.
A suspect, Abubakar Shuaibu Ibrahim, has already been taken into custody in connection with the seizure.
In Taraba State, NDLEA officers on Thursday intercepted a commercial bus marked JAL 198 YQ coming from Onitsha, Anambra State to Jalingo.
Large quantities of opioids: tramadol, rohypnol and codeine-based syrup concealed in body compartments of the vehicle were said to have been recovered, while two suspects: Pako Thomas and Emmanuel Anyigor were arrested.
Another suspect, Chibuzor Okafor, was arrested at Wukari on Wednesday with 80 blocks of cannabis weighing 38kgs hidden in bags of garri.
In Lagos State, a suspect Bolanle Ajenifuja, was on Friday at Afo-Media area of Ojo was apprehended with 700 litres of skuchies, a mixture of local chapman and cocktail of illicit drugs, while three suspects: Ezekiel Akpele, Elijah Michael1 and Goddard John, were nabbed same day when the operatives raided two cannabis farms located at bridge camp, a boundary community between Edo and Ondo states.
Not less than 9,966.332kgs of the substance was destroyed on over three hectares of farmland with 48kgs of the already processed psychoactive substance recovered.