Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted over 2.3 million tablets of illicit pharmaceutical opioids and other psychoactive substances meant for distribution in seven northern states of Borno, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara, Gombe and Nasarawa.
The spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said on Sunday in Abuja that the interceptions were achieved in a series of interdiction operations in the past week.
He said in all, a total of 2,325, 553 tablets and capsules of Tramadol, Pregabalin, Hypnox, Diazepam and Exol-5 including 7,353 bottles of a new psychoactive substance locally called Akuskura meant for the seven states were seized.
He listed the locations of the seizures as Kaduna, Kogi, Sokoto and the FCT.
Babafemi said, “In Kaduna, a drug dealer, Umar Sanusi, was arrested on Friday 12th August during a follow-up operation in Kano and brought back to Kaduna where his consignment of 50 cartons of Pregabalin 300mg, containing 750,000 capsules, weighing 375kg, earlier seized along Abuja-Kaduna expressway, was assessed in his presence.
“The same day, operatives also intercepted along the Abuja-Kaduna express road 7,068 bottles of a new dangerous substance of abuse called Akuskura meant for Kaduna, Zamfara, Gombe, Kano and Borno states.”
The recipients in Kaduna and Zamfara states were arrested during follow-up operations.
On Saturday August 13, 285 bottles of NPS were recovered from a dealer, Abubakar Ahmad, along the same highway.
A major importer of another variant of hemp from the United States, Abibu Afis Sola, and a 63-year-old man who ships illicit substances to his daughter in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), are among those arrested by the NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
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