The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a consignment of captagon, an amphetamine-type drug, in Kwara State. 

The agency’s Director, Media and Advocacy, Mr Femi Babafemi, stated this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday.

Mr Babafemi said that the interception came barely five years after the NDLEA recorded the first seizure of the deadly terror drug in Africa, at the Apapa seaport in Lagos.

He said that captagon, a tiny, highly addictive pill, widely available across the Middle East, produced a euphoric intensity in users, allowing them to stay awake for days.

According to him, it also makes users fearless and predisposes them to reckless actions that put the lives of those around them in jeopardy.

Mr Babafemi added that its production and sale were controlled by militias and large criminal groups allegedly linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

This, he said, was a means of generating funds for weapons and combatants, and of using it as a stimulant to keep them fighting.

Mr Babafemi further said that the latest seizure of captagon, which street value costs as much as $25 dollar a pill, was made on Tuesday, April 21.

According to him, the agency’s operatives on patrol along Bode Saadu road in Kwara, intercepted a trailer conveying passengers.

“A search conducted on one of the passengers, a 33-year-old man, led to the recovery of 10 packs of captagon, consisting of 10,000 pills and nine packets of Tapentadol 250mg.

“In another interdiction operation at the Bode Saadu patrol point, NDLEA officers on Friday, April 24, intercepted a trailer marked RMY-70XA.

“A search of the truck led to the recovery of 155,900 capsules of tramadol, 6,000 ampoules of tramadol injection, 3,000 tablets of Co-Codamol, and 9,000 tablets of Bromazepam, concealed in a false compartment constructed under the trailer.

“A 24-year-old suspect has been taken into custody in connection with the seizure,” he said.

Similarly, Mr Babafemi said that operatives in Oyo, on Tuesday, April 21, also intercepted a commercial bus with registration number MNA 963 ZY, at Akinyele, on Ibadan/Oyo expressway, en route Sokoto.

He said that a 33-year-old passenger was brought down from the vehicle and taken for a body scan, the results of which confirmed ingestion of an illicit drug.

The NDLEA spokesman explained that the suspect, who claimed to be a businessman in Sokoto, was subsequently placed under close observation.

This, he said, led to his excreting a total of 45 pellets of cocaine, with a total weight of 1.043 kilogrammes in three excretions.

“The decision to travel by road to Sokoto with the illicit drug in his stomach was to evade detection by NDLEA at the airport.

“Further investigation revealed that upon arrival in Sokoto, the suspect was to excrete the pellets, rest for a few days and subsequently re-ingest the substances to continue the journey.

“This is through the trans-Saharan routes, with Algeria as a transit point and possible final destination in Europe,” he said.

Mr Babafemi said that in another development, NDLEA officers on patrol along the Benin/Lagos expressway on Saturday, April 25, in Edo, intercepted a truck marked NLC 146 FC, conveying 1, 196,000 pills of pharmaceutical opioids, among others.

He said that two suspects were apprehended in connection with the seizure of consignments bound for Onitsha in Anambra.

Speaking further, he said a suspect was also arrested at the Mile 2 Expressway in Lagos on Saturday, April 25, while conveying 810 kilogrammes of Arizona, a strain of cannabis.

“Another suspect was nabbed by NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, April 22, at Misau road, Azare, Katagun Local Government Area (LGA) in Bauchi, with 288 blocks of skunk weighing 154.5kg.

“In the same vein, in Ekiti, a total of 466.8 kilograms of skunk were recovered from the house of a suspect at Ilaro street, Isinbode-Ekiti, from where he planned to transport them to Yola, Adamawa,” he said.

Mr Babafemi also said that 20,000 kilogrammes of the same psychoactive substance were destroyed on eight hectares of farmland in the Uyanga community, Akamkpa LGA, Cross River, on Saturday, April 25.

According to him, the destruction took place when NDLEA officers, supported by soldiers, raided the community and recovered 170kg of processed cannabis.

“Also, in another development, 394 pieces of IED components were seized from a suspect by operatives of the agency on patrol along the Kontagora/Zuru road, Niger state, on Wednesday, April 22.

“He was conveying the IED materials in a red Toyota car with registration number KNT 617 AE, to Shadadi, Mariga LGA.

“The suspect and exhibit are to be transferred to the relevant security agency for further investigation,” he said.

(NAN)