Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), has said drugs meant
for insurgents worth N6 billion has been intercepted by the Agency at the Apapa
port in Lagos.
Giving details of the seizure while speaking at a media
briefing on Wednesday, Marwa said loads of Captagon, a brand of Amphetamine
were intercepted by the Agency’s operatives.
This is as he condemned the evil intent of those behind the
importation of the illicit substance into the country at a time when the nation
is facing some security challenges.
The Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja,
Femi Babafemi, in a statement, said the NDLEA boss vowed that the Agency would
not rest until everyone connected to the consignment is arrested and
prosecuted.
Babafemi quoted Marwa as saying, “Sometime in March 2021, we
received intel from our international partners on the shipment of illicit
narcotics to Nigeria from the Middle East through the Apapa port. The container
passed through three countries and was transloaded in a North African country,
but we kept track of it along with our partners.
“We made the first attempt to examine the container on
Thursday, August 26, 2021, and what we found inside the container were three
(3) pieces of marble polishing machines, otherwise called sanders.
“Further scrutiny on Monday, August 31, with the NDLEA
sniffer dogs turned up a positive indication on the rotor coil of one of the
three machines. The next day, Wednesday, 1st September, 18,560 tablets of drug
suspected to be Amphetamine (Captagon) weighing 3.2kg was found deeply
concealed in one of the coils.
“The following day, Thursday, September 2, the other two
machines were dismantled, and in all, a total of 451, 807 tablets, weighing
74.119 kilograms, were discovered hidden inside their rotor coils.
“Going by the street value of about $25 per tablet, the
importer would have raised $11.3million, which is equivalent to N6 billion.
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“Imagine the impact of this drug in the hands of criminal
gangs or a fraction of the profit from its sale being used to fuel
criminalities across the country, we can think of our worst-case scenarios and
they will still be farther from the repercussions that could be unleashed on
the country.
“It may interest you to know that, as far as we know, this
is the first time this drug is being brought into any African country South of
the Sahara. This tiny, highly addictive pill, widely available across the
Middle East, produces a euphoric intensity in users, allowing them to stay
awake for days, making them fearless, predisposes them to reckless action that
puts the lives of people around them in jeopardy.
“What should give any discerning Nigerian a nightmare
concerning this drug is the fact that its production and sale is controlled by
militias and large criminal groups in the Middle East. And beyond any doubt,
Captagon has been linked to the escalation of the Syrian Civil War. A lot of
seizures have been made since 2017, mostly in the Arabian Peninsula, and in
Italy and Turkey, and the point of origination, almost all the time, were
traced back to Syria and Lebanon. This gave rise to the theory that ISIS is
behind the production and sale of Captagon as a means of generating funds for
weapons and combatants, and for use as a stimulant to keep them fighting.
“Lest we forget, Captagon was the name of the drug found on
the phone of the French-Tunisian terrorist who killed 84 civilians in France on
Bastille Day in 2016. That is the drug we have on our hands now. If these facts
are not grim enough, we should all remember a lesson from history, when in
World War Two, Nazi Germany wreaked havoc across Europe with chemically-enhanced
soldiers that the combined forces of Europe could not tame.
“This is the same condition we have presently with
insurgents, bandits, cultists, robbers, kidnappers and herders spilling
rampaging across the country.
“Given the dark and dangerous background of Captagon, its
not difficult to guess correctly that the destination for the seized drug is
none other than the camps of insurgents and bandits all over the country.”
He assured Nigerians that the Agency would continue to work
hard with support from local and international partners to block availability
and access to all manners of illicit substances across the country.
“Given the zero tolerance of NDLEA for production,
trafficking and abuse of any illicit substance, our approach to this discovery
couldnt be casual. The first arrest has been made and well not rest on our oars
until every person connected to this shipment is arrested,” he added.
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