The Nigerian Custom Service ( NSC) Tincan Island Port Command on Tuesday, handed over case file of suspect and vessel carrying cocaine to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA
Customs Area Controller, Mba Musa made this known at a news conference in Lagos State
According to him, the cocaine which was contained in a vessel MV SPAR SCORPIO with rotation No. 78/21 of Jan 18 was laden with 42,000 metric tonnes of raw sugar imported from Santos, Brazil.
Musa said the Boarding Officer of the Enforcement Unit on Feb 8,at about 11.03 hours reported that at Josepdam Terminal, the vessel,MV SPAR SCORPIO came with a crew list of 20 , who visited eleven ports of call including Brazil, USA, Panama and Korea before arriving Tincan Island Port with no issue of hard drugs reported.
The vessel discharged two bags of forty packages suspected to be hard drugs.
“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 personnel who arrived and took over the substance from the Josepdam officials.
” The substance was examined in the presence of regulatory agencies,the two bags of 40 packages of pressed cocaine declared weight was 100.0 pounds, 43.11 kg as stated in the Josepdam incident report of Feb 9.
” Sequel to that, the Command issued a Detention Notice on the vessel and consequently commenced Investigation on the circumstances surrounding the important and eventual interception of the drugs”
he said.
He added that the suspects had been confined to the vessel and the vessel guarded by enforcement officers in line with a court order.
Musa said the command had concluded examination on the subject and handed over the case file to the legal officer of the NCS for further Investigation.
The Legal Adviser, Mr Smart Akande said the NCS would continue to monitor the progress of the matter and assured that it would assist the NDLEA when need be so they can do things well adding that the case file being handed over contained all documents, t statement to assist the NDLEA.
In his remarks, the Director of Operations and General Investigation of,NDLEA, Adeofe Adeyemi thanked the NCS for the handover and said that it had gone far in Investigation leading to the source of the vessel which was Brazil. .
