Customs Hands Over Ship Detained Over Cocaine Consignment to NDLEA
The Tin Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Tuesday handed over the vessel detained over cocaine cargo, MV SPAR SCORPIO, to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The offending cargo was discovered during discharge of sugar which was the main cargo that the vessel had brought into the country.
Apart fom the vessle, the Customs also handed over the case file and a suspect.
Controller of the Commamd, Musa Abdulahi, said the vessel was laden with 42,000 metric tonnes of raw sugar imported from Brazil.
Andullahi said that an officer of the Enforcement Unit had boarded the vessl on Februiary 8 at about 11.03 am and had reported the matter to the Josepdam Terminal.
He disclosed that the items were two bags of forty packages suspected to be hard drugs.
According to the Controller, “The vessel came in with a crew list of 20, visited eleven ports of call including Brazil, USA, Panama, Korea and no issue of drugs were reported on arrival. This development prompted Josepdam officials to draw the attention of the Principal Staff Officer of the Nigerian Ports Authority who in turn notified the NDLEA who arrived and took over the substance from Josepdam officials.
“The substance was examined in the presence of regulatory agencies and the two bags of 40 packages of compressed cocaine declared weight was 100.0 pounds, 43.11kg as stated in the Josepdam incident report of February 9. ”Sequel to that, the command issued a Detention Notice on the vessel with reference No. NCS/TCIP/ENF/EC/VOL. XV/218 dated February 8 and consequently commenced investigation on the circumstances surrounding the import and eventual interception of the drugs.”
He said the Service had secured a court order to detain the vessel as a result of the seizure.
The Director of Operations and General Investigating, NDLEA, Adeofe Adeyemi, said that investigation on the case was ongoing and commended the Customs for the handover.
He said the two organisations were working for the same purpose of national security.
The offending cargo was discovered during discharge of sugar which was the main cargo that the vessel had brought into the country.
Apart fom the vessle, the Customs also handed over the case file and a suspect.
Controller of the Commamd, Musa Abdulahi, said the vessel was laden with 42,000 metric tonnes of raw sugar imported from Brazil.
Andullahi said that an officer of the Enforcement Unit had boarded the vessl on Februiary 8 at about 11.03 am and had reported the matter to the Josepdam Terminal.
He disclosed that the items were two bags of forty packages suspected to be hard drugs.
According to the Controller, “The vessel came in with a crew list of 20, visited eleven ports of call including Brazil, USA, Panama, Korea and no issue of drugs were reported on arrival. This development prompted Josepdam officials to draw the attention of the Principal Staff Officer of the Nigerian Ports Authority who in turn notified the NDLEA who arrived and took over the substance from Josepdam officials.
“The substance was examined in the presence of regulatory agencies and the two bags of 40 packages of compressed cocaine declared weight was 100.0 pounds, 43.11kg as stated in the Josepdam incident report of February 9. ”Sequel to that, the command issued a Detention Notice on the vessel with reference No. NCS/TCIP/ENF/EC/VOL. XV/218 dated February 8 and consequently commenced investigation on the circumstances surrounding the import and eventual interception of the drugs.”
He said the Service had secured a court order to detain the vessel as a result of the seizure.
The Director of Operations and General Investigating, NDLEA, Adeofe Adeyemi, said that investigation on the case was ongoing and commended the Customs for the handover.
He said the two organisations were working for the same purpose of national security.
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