The Murtala Muhammed Airport Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has disclosed it intercepted hard drugs and military and police hardware at the cargo section of the airport.
The Customs Area Controller, Sambo Dangaladima, while addressing journalists at the command in Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday, said 162 cartons of banned tramadol hydrochloride 225 and 250mg, military and police hardware were intercepted at the Skyway Aviation Handling Company.
He said the drugs originated from India and Pakistan and were routed through Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia.
The area controller said the drugs had an estimated duty-paid value of N13.8 billion, noting, “These milligrams (225 and 250mg) are above allowable thresholds as contained in extant laws. The hard drugs originated from India and Pakistan and they were routed through Addis-Ababa to Lagos.
“In summary, we have a total of 162 cartons, 92,387 packs, 929,970 sachets, and 9,299,700 tablets of tramadol hydrochloride with a value of N13.8billion.”
He noted that the command would hand over the seized drugs to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, as 309 pieces of military helmets, 106 pieces of military armless jackets, 352 pieces of ballistic body armoured pads, and 119 pieces of police badges were also intercepted by the command.
Others are five pieces of bullet-proof jackets, 33 pieces of body side ballistic pads, and 105 pieces of ballistic chest plates.
“The suspect connected to this importation could not provide the end user certificate which is the lawful prerequisite for such importation. We have detained the suspects and the military wares, while investigation is ongoing.
“We are very mindful of the fact that 2023 is an election year in Nigeria; the inflow of traffic of these hard drugs that induce our youths to do extraordinary things are bound to increase,” he said.
