NDLEA confiscates 8,852kg of marijuana, after a gunfight in Lagos.

8,852 kilograms of Canadian loud, an imported synthetic cannabis strain, were found along Eleko Road in the Lekki neighborhood of Lagos by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

This was revealed in a statement released on Sunday by the director of media and advocacy at NDLEA, Femi Babafemi.

He said that the seizure was made after agency agents confronted armed individuals transporting the illicit narcotics in a 30-minute gunfight.

He claims that the CIA ambushed the traffickers Thursday who were transferring the shipment piled onto two trucks based on intelligence.

Babafemi said, “When the suspects who were escorted by armed men were flagged down, rather than stop, they escaped and abandoned the drugs. But they were later overpowered by the operatives in an exchange of gunfire that lasted 30 minutes.

“While one of the trucks painted red has 149 jumbo bags weighing 6,548kg, the second one with blue colour has 53 big bags with a weight of 2,304kg, bringing the total number of bags to 202 and gross weight of both to 8,852 kilograms. Meanwhile, operatives are already on the trail of the drug lord who shipped the illicit consignment into the country.”

According to him, on the same day, NDLEA agents stopped a Toyota Sienna driven by Mukaila Idowu at the Otedola Bridge carrying 88.3 kg of skunk, and on the following day, Joseph Friday was detained at lyana Ira in Lagos with 58.7 kg of cannabis sativa hidden inside his Toyota Camry with the license plate FST 587FH.

“Meanwhile, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, attached to courier firms, intercepted blocks of compressed brown methamphetamine packaged as soap bars weighing 1.54 kilograms going to Australia.

“The seizure at a courier house in Lagos on Tuesday, May 2, was a follow-up operation to an earlier interception of 3.389kg of the same substance on February 23, 2023. A suspected drug courier, Paul Adetigbe who delivered the previous parcel was eventually arrested with the latest consignment,” Babafemi said.

He further mentioned that between May 3 and May 5, the agency made drug recoveries and arrested several individuals in the states of Ogun, Adamawa, Edo, Anambra, and Kogi.