The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has intercepted illicit drugs worth more than N6.2 billion in major operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, including thousands of captagon pills and millions of opioid tablets.
The News Chronicle reports that NDLEA officers arrested a 49-year-old cross-border trafficker, Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, after 47,200 captagon tablets were discovered hidden inside blocks of local bathing soap following his arrival from Accra, Ghana.
The consignment, valued at over N1.5 billion, was allegedly destined for northern Nigeria. Captagon is an amphetamine type stimulant that has been linked to trafficking networks and extremist groups in conflict zones.
In another airport operation, NDLEA recovered 3.9 million tablets of Tramaking and Tapentadol worth more than N4.6 billion from four abandoned consignments. The drugs had arrived from Bangladesh and Amsterdam through international flights.
The crackdown extended beyond Lagos, with cocaine, heroin and cannabis recovered in Rivers State, while over one tonne of cannabis was seized in Ondo.
Delta State also recorded the recovery of more than 176,000 opioid tablets.
NDLEA officials said the seizures underline the scale of Nigeria’s drug trafficking challenge and the need for stronger cooperation among security agencies, communities, schools and families.
