Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted a total of 31,124,600 pills of tramadol 225mg and bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N17,932,200,000 in street value at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers State, and Tincan Seaport in Lagos.

In a statement by NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, the seizures were made following intelligence processed by the agency on the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India, leading to a demand for a 100 per cent joint examination of the watch-listed containers with the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and other sister security agencies.

A breakdown of the seizures shows that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at Tincan Port in Lagos on Thursday, August 29, 2024 and Friday, August 30, 2024. Each of the two containers had 175,000 bottles of the opioid.

READ ALSO: Ex-beauty queen surrenders to NDLEA after eight months on the run

At the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, NDLEA operatives equally intercepted a total of 447 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing 29,840,000 pills of the opioid and 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on Thursday, 29th August.

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

Then, on Friday, 30th August, another set of three containers was subjected to joint examination. At the end of the exercise, a total of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup containing 554,600 bottles of the opioids were recovered from them.

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