NDLEA seizes 7.5m tramadol pills, codeine ahead Christmas

The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted millions of tramadol 225mg pills, thousands of codeine syrup bottles, and bags of Canadian Loud in consignments arriving in the country ahead of the Christmas celebration.

At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos State, all tricks employed by drug syndicates to smuggle into the country 7.5 million pills of tramadol 225mg through the NAHCO import shed of the airport were frustrated by NDLEA officers with the cooperation of men of the Nigeria Customs and other stakeholders.

The consignment which was taken into custody on Friday, December 22, 2023, came onboard Turkish airline with no country of manufacture or origin.

The NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, who made the disclosure in a statement on Sunday, said apart from being the first time such shipment seized on the Turkish airline’s flight, it was equally the first of such coming from Hamburg, Germany.

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Babafemi stated that the 7.5 million tramadol 225mg pills were also specially designed and packaged as tamol-x concealed in 100 big cartons weighing 7,150kg, which arrived the country on December 11 and placed under surveillance until last Friday.

The NDLEA spokesman said a preliminary test of the tablets proved positive to tramadol hydrochloride.

He noted that the NDLEA operatives, on Wednesday, December 20, conducted a search operation on two shops marked Chex Mat Global Link Limited at Trade Fair complex in the Ojo area of Lagos where 258 cartons of codeine-based cough syrup and eight cartons of codeine tablets were recovered.

“The cartons contain 49, 200 bottles of codeine syrup and 46, 200 tablets of same opioid. The following day Thursday 21st December, NDLEA operatives raided a house in Mushin area of Lagos where a 70-year-old grandma, Selifat Funke Cole and her son, Babajide Ayorinde Cole were arrested with 117.900kg of cannabis sativa,” Babafemi disclosed.

The Star