The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has made huge seizures of prohibited opioid pills and bottles of codeine-based cough syrup at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers State and the Apapa Seaport in Lagos State.
No fewer than six million pills of opioids namely: tamol 225mg, tapentadol 225mg and carisoprodol 225mg as well as 332,000 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup were intercepted during the separate operations in the two states.
According to a statement by the Director of Media and Advocacy of NDLEA, Femi Babafemi on Sunday, the seized pharmaceutical products have a combined street value of Six Billion Five Hundred and Twenty-Four Million Naira (N6,524,000,000.00).
Babafemi noted that the seizures at the Onne and Apapa Ports followed intelligence and tracking of new trafficking routes to ship illicit substances into Nigeria by drug cartels, which necessitated the watch-listing of the containers for 100 per cent examination.
“The consignments at the Port Harcourt ports: six million pills of opioids and 162,000 bottles of codeine syrup were uncovered in two containers on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th May 2025 during a joint examination of the shipments by NDLEA officers with men of the Nigeria Customs and other security agencies.
“At the Apapa port in Lagos, a total of 170,000 bottles of codeine syrup were discovered in a watch-listed container by NDLEA operatives during a similar joint examination exercise on Thursday 22nd May”, the statement read in part.
Meanwhile, two British nationals: Mhizha Jordan Alexander Tatendra and Ayedipe Andrew Adejuwon as well as two Nigerians: Shonowo Oluwaseun Imole and Ofuoma Omokaro Ayobami have been arrested by NDLEA operatives for attempting to smuggle 92 bags of Loud into Nigeria.
The four men were apprehended at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos with 51.10kg loud package, which is a strong strain of cannabis.
Alexander was intercepted with the consignment upon his arrival at the MMIA on a Qatar Airline flight from Doha based on processed intelligence on Thursday, 15th of May.
He was allowed to pass through the security control unhindered and closely monitored by NDLEA operatives to the car park, where the owner of the cargo, Ayedipe Andrew Adejuwon, who is a Nigerian British, was waiting in an SUV along with his relation Shonowo Oluwaseun Imole and the driver of the vehicle, Ofuoma Omokaro Ayobami, to receive the courier.
The NDLEA operatives tracking them however swooped on them as they attempted to drive out of the airport car park, arresting them with the drug exhibits in the vehicle.
In his statement, Alexander confessed he was recruited during his vacation weeks ago while he was promised 1,300 British Pounds after a successful delivery of the consignment in Lagos.
The arrowhead of the syndicate, Ayedipe Andrew Adejuwon, confessed that he arrived in Nigeria a day earlier from South Africa through Ghana. A follow-up operation at their apartment in Lekki led to more discoveries.
At the point of his arrest, N93,000 and 17,200 South African Rand were recovered from him while a search of his Lekki apartment, led to the seizure of Three Million Eight Hundred and Ten Thousand Five Hundred Naira (N3,810,500) cash, an Apple laptop, an iPhone 14 Pro Max and four laughing gas (Nitro Oxide) canisters.
