NDLEA intercepts one tonne of illicit drugs at Lagos Airport, secures conviction of 12 suspects in Q1
By Shile GIWA
Operatives of National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos have intercepted and im pounded about one tonne of proscribed drugs within the first quarter of 2021.
This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Commander Garba Ahmadu during a courtesy call paid on him in his office by the executives of League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents ( LAAC).
Ahmadu who disclosed that the command intercepted and confiscated about 979.66kg of illicit drugs at the airport between January and March, 2021 gave the breakdown to include 63.217kg of cocaine, 0.950grms of heroine, 13.3kg of cannabis sativa and over 500kgs of khat leaves.He also added that the Command which succeeded with the arrest of 14 suspects, secured the prosecution of another 14 suspects and conviction of 12 suspects.
“We also arrested 14 suspects within the period. Again, we have been able to secure 14 prosecutions in the court. These are out of the numbers that were taken and successfully prosecuted and get convictions for 12 people.,” he said.
The Commander who said his command has succeeded at making the largest single seizure of 26.85t kg of cocaine this year noted the seizure became interested because it was brought in by a woman who checked it in as ordinary luggage.
“I think what I want to stress is that this year, we are able to have the largest single seizure of 26.85kg of cocaine. This is very interesting because it was brought in by a lady. If you look at, this is more than half a bag of rice and if you look at how she did it, she just checked it in as a check-in luggage and passed it through. That is a very serious seizure. I think our officers should be commended for this,” Ahmadu said.
He added, “We have huge seizure of cocaine this year. This is a little different from what obtained in previous years. In the first quarter of 2020, we had some huge seizures, but not the same for 2018 and 2019.”
