Nigeria seizes 200,000 illicit tablets in nationwide raids

Nigeria’s drug control authority says it has seized about 200,000 tablets of various pharmaceutical opioids and illicit substances in raids across the country.

It follows weeks of surveillance and raids on places where suspected drug traffickers were hiding.

The spokesperson for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Femi Babafemi, said several arrests have been made.

The agency also said that it foiled fresh bids by drug cartels to export tramadol, ecstasy and cannabis to Milan, Italy and Dubai, United Arab Emirates through the airport in Lagos.

It comes less than a week after a freight agent was reportedly arrested at the same airport while attempting to export food items in which hidden blocks of cannabis as well as ecstasy were hidden.

A female passenger was also arrested while trying to board a Royal Air Maroc flight from Lagos via Casablanca to Milan with 1,000 tablets of tramadol concealed in food items.

This article originally appeared in BBC News

Photo: NDLEA