The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Murtala Muhammed Airport Command (MMAC) has intercepted hard drugs, military and police hardware at the cargo section of the domestic wing of the airport.

The customs area controller of the command, Sambo Dangaladima, disclosed this at a news conference on Tuesday in Lagos.

Mr Dangaladima said the drugs consisted of 162 cartons of banned tramadol hydrochloride 225 and 250mg, military and police hardware, intercepted at the Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO).

He said the drugs originated from India and Pakistan and were routed through Addis-Ababa to Lagos, having an estimated duty-paid value (DPV) of N13.8 billion.

He noted that the drugs included 92,387 packs, 929,970 sachets and 9,299,700 tablets.

“These milligrams (225mg and 250mg) are above allowable thresholds as contained in the extant laws. In summary, we have a total of 162 cartons, 92,387 packs, 929,970 sachets, and 9,299,700 tablets of tramadol hydrochloride with a DPV of N13.8 billion,” Mr Dangaladima explained. “The drugs will be handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) by this command. We are also handing over the suspect by name, Samson Olayiwan Tantolohun, of 29 Okejide Street, Ejigbo, Lagos.”

He mentioned that the command seized some military hardware and uniforms from two AWBs,118-11860343/3 and118-18860332/5. The hardware was 309 pieces of military helmets, 106 pieces of armless military jackets, 352 pieces of ballistic body armoured pads and 119 pieces of police badges. Others are five pieces of bulletproof jackets, 33 pieces of body side ballistic pads and 105 pieces of ballistic chest plates. 

“The suspects connected to this importation could not provide the end user certificate, which is the lawful prerequisite for such importation. We have detained the suspects, Mr Olaolu Marquis, and the military ware while investigation is ongoing,” added the customs official. “The service is empowered by section 46B of the Customs Excise and Management Act to perform this act.”

(NAN)