The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has seized drugs worth over ₦3.3 billion, including methamphetamine and Loud, a potent strain of synthetic cannabis, smuggled into Nigeria concealed in automobile spare parts.

The shipments, intended for distribution during the Christmas and New Year festivities, were intercepted at the Tincan seaport in Lagos following months of meticulous intelligence tracking across three continents.

“For the first time in the history of NDLEA’s anti-narcotic operations, two consignments of methamphetamine weighing 83.301 kilograms were, on Thursday, 12th and Friday, 13th December 2024, recovered from separate containers bearing vehicles and spare parts coming from Canada and heading to warehouses in the Ladipo automobile parts market in the Mushin area of Lagos,” NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said.

NDLEA said one of the containers going to the Ladipo market through the Sifax bonded terminal was examined on Thursday, 12th December; no less than 5.001kg of methamphetamine hidden in a bag wrapped in a bed sheet that came in a Toyota Camry car was recovered.

Meanwhile, the other container bearing automobile spare parts, checked on Friday, 13th December, was found to contain 1,735 parcels of Loud packed in 44 jumbo bags with a total weight of 867.5kg and six plastic coolers containing 87 packs of methamphetamine weighing 78.3kg.

NDLEA also disclosed that a businessman, Isaac Onwumere, linked to the first consignment, was promptly arrested, and two businessmen, Nwanolue Emeka and Friday Ogbe, were arrested in connection with the second seizure.

The two meth consignments have a combined weight of 83.301kg worth ₦124,951,000.00, while the 867.5kg of Loud is worth ₦2,168,750,000.00 in street value.

The seizures were made during a joint examination of the shipments with Customs and other port stakeholders. This followed months of intelligence processing and tracking of the consignments from their ports of loading in Canada to the landing port in Lagos by combined Special Operations Units in NDLEA and the Tincan Port Strategic Command of the Agency.

The first container with 5.001kg of meth came under the radar of NDLEA’s intelligence network on 4th October 2024 when the preparation for the shipment began in Toronto, Canada, monitored through 8th October when the shipment was received at the rail ramp, loaded on the rail, and departed to Montreal, Canada, where it arrived and was unloaded the following day, 9th October.

The consignment was further monitored until it was loaded onto a vessel on 19th October, after which the vessel arrived and discharged at Antwerp in Belgium on 30th October. The consignment was trans-shipped and loaded on 14th November before arriving at Lagos port on 1st December and being released to a bonded terminal two days later.

The second shipment, containing 867.5kg of Loud and 78.3kg of methamphetamine, followed the same route. It came under NDLEA’s intelligence tracking on 8th October 2024 when the consignments were delivered to the shipper in Toronto, Canada, loaded onto the rail on 14th October, and arrived in Montreal the following day, 15th October, after which they were loaded onto a vessel to Europe on 20th October.

After arrival and trans-shipment at Antwerp in Belgium on 6th and 17th November, respectively, the consignments were tracked until they arrived and were discharged from the vessel at Lagos port on 6th December before being moved to the terminal on 10th December.

In a related operation, NDLEA officers at the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Rivers State intercepted 636,600 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth ₦4.46 billion. The shipments, originating from India, were seized during joint examinations of four containers conducted on 9th, 11th, and 13th December 2024.