NDLEA intercepts pills, opioids worth N17.9b at Lagos, Rivers ports

After eight months of evading authorities, a wanted former beauty queen, Ms Aderinoye Queen Christmas, also known as Ms Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, has turned herself in to the Lagos Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

She had been declared wanted by the agency in January after she fled from her residence in Lekki, Lagos following a raid by NDLEA operatives on her apartment at Oral Estate, Lekki, on Wednesday, January 24.

The raid was conducted based on credible intelligence indicating her involvement in illicit drug activities.

The suspect was Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and the founder of the Queen Christmas Foundation.

Items recovered from her home during the search witnessed by the estate officials include 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis; an electronic weighing scale; large quantities of drug-packing plastics; a black RAV 4 SUV marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ; and her picture frame, among other items.

Agency spokesperson Femi Babafemi said yesterday that the suspect, who claimed she had been hiding in Akure, Ondo State, since January when she escaped arrest in Lekki, Lagos, surrendered on Wednesday, August 28.

Meanwhile, operatives of the NDLEA have intercepted about 31 million pills of tramadol 225mg and bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N17 billion (street value) at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers State and Tincan seaport in Lagos.

The seizures were made following intelligence on the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India. This led to a demand for a 100 per cent joint examination of the watch-listed containers with the Nigerian Customs Service and other sister security agencies.

A breakdown of the seizures showed that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at Tincan Port in Lagos on August 29 and 30.

Each of the two containers had 175,000 bottles of the opioid.

At the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, NDLEA operatives also intercepted 447 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing about 29 million pills of the opioid as well as 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on Thursday, August 29.

The tramadol shipments came under brand names such as Royal Tapetadol, Carisoprodol 225mg and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride 225mg.

On Friday, August 30, another set of three containers watch-listed by NDLEA was subjected to joint examination.

At the end of the exercise, 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup containing 554,600 bottles of opioids were recovered.

This brings the total bottles of codeine seized at Onne, Rivers and Tincan in Lagos to 1,284,600, worth N8,992,200,000.00 (street value), while the combined seizure of tramadol stood at 29,840,000 pills valued at N8,940,000,000.00.

In the same vein, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State, on Tuesday, August 27, arrested a suspect, Eze Emekan Don, while attempting to board a Cronos airline flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with 1,490 pills of tramadol concealed and packaged as cosmetics of different brands inside his luggage.

His attempt to compromise the officers to evade arrest was rebuffed.