Customs Strike Force Seize N6.1m Hard Drugs in Katsina

Francis Sardauna in Katsina

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Strike Force Zone B, has intercepted N6.1 million foreign hard drugs with fake National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) registration number in Katsina State.

The Coordinator of the Comptroller-General of Customs Strike Force, Oseni Aliyu Olorukooba, disclosed this yesterday while displaying the seized items before journalists in Katsina.

He said the drugs were intercepted by operatives of the strike force in Malumfashi and Jibia local government areas of the state as part of the NCS’s ongoing war against smuggling.

He listed the seized drugs to include 52 cartons of EJAC powder manpower, hympashy capsule, amipara plus capsule, bobarak capsule manpower, Sacks manpower, goldfly, gonorrhoea capsule, ginseng coffee manpower, among others.

He also announced the seizure of 550 bags of foreign rice, 300 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 790 cartons of foreign soaps concealed in biscuits and noodles’ cartons and a motorcycle with the duty paid value of N104,788,000.

Olorukooba said: “For the purpose of statistics, we have seized 450 bags of 50kg each of foreign parboiled rice, 100 bags of 25kg each of rice, 300 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 790 cartons of foreign soaps, 52 cartons of drugs and one motorcycle.

“The grand total of the duty paid value of all the items seized within the last quarters (October to December) in the Katsina axis here is N110,890,000.”

The coordinator of the anti-smuggling team noted that the seizures recorded were due to the relentless effort of the Comptroller-General of the NCS, Hameed Ali and officers of the strike force.

He explained that smuggling has adverse effects on the nation’s economy and trading activities, adding that the strike force would continue to adopt revolving strategies in order to ward off smuggling in the country.