By Anne Ejuka
The synergy between the Operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigerian Navy, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and Police has lead to the discovery of 32.9kg of Cocaine in a Vessel that called at the Apapa port.
According to a press release signed by the command's image maker, DSC Abubakar Usman, thirty parcels weighing 32.9 Kilograms of cocaine was discovered in Apapa Port inside MV Chayanee Naree, a cargo vessel that came from Brazil.
The discovery according to the release was done in the course of a joint operation involving the Nigeria Customs Service, Inter POl , Nigerian Navy and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency following intelligence report about the ship's content shared by interpol to the various agencies which necessitated close monitoring of the ship using high maritime domain awareness system.
The Headquarters of the NCS had directed Apapa Command to follow up on the ship with other government agencies. This was jointly done for days; The ship was berthed under arrest at Terminal C in Apapa where the security agencies did a search on her with the aid of sniffer dogs, the suspected substance was discovered and referred to the NDLEA for tests, which confirmed it to be cocaine.
Customs Area Controller of the command, Compt. Malanta Yusuf said the command relied on provisions of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) sections 49, 50 and 51 to conduct the exercise.
Comptroller Yusuf who said the discovered drug has been kept in the custody of NDLEA, commended the synergy and described it as very productive. He added that more search is ongoing on the vessel and any additional discovery will be made known to the public.
The vessel which departed Santos, Brazil on September 19, 2021 and drifted for about a week off the coast of Benin Republic from October I to October 8 2021 when it arrived Nigeria.
Intelligence report obtained from the ship's captain confirmed that Brazil Customs had earlier intercepted 150kg of cocaine from one of the ship's compartments when she berthed at Sopep Locker, Brazil on September 19,2021