The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has seized a massive haul of illicit goods, including five containers of unapproved sex-enhancement drugs and six containers of prohibited pharmaceuticals, expired food items, and restricted security equipment. The contraband, worth a staggering N921 billion, was intercepted at Apapa Port between January and April this year.
Customs Comptroller-General Bashir Adeniyi revealed the seizures during a press briefing at the port yesterday. He explained that the discovery was made through enhanced surveillance and risk assessment measures, which align with the government’s National Strategic Economic Development Plan and the Presidential Executive Order on Port Operations.
The operation led to 11 separate seizures, including five 40-foot containers, two 20-foot containers, and four additional cases of cleverly concealed illegal goods.
Adeniyi expressed particular concern over the surge in smuggled sexual performance drugs, often fraudulently declared as cosmetics. He warned that these unregulated substances carry severe health risks, such as heart complications and dangerous reactions with other medications, especially when used without medical guidance.
“A particularly alarming trend was the proliferation of unregulated sexual performance enhancers, which constituted the bulk of pharmaceutical seizures. These drugs pose significant cardiovascular risks when consumed without medical supervision,” the CGC warned.
He listed other categories of seized Items to include unregistered pharmaceutical products, constituting 73.7 per cent of the total haul, which were falsely declared as cosmetic powder, and discovered to lack mandatory National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) registration and certification, contravening Section 28 of the NAFDAC Act.
Adeniyi also displayed expired food items, notably margarine, intercepted in two 20-foot container, with safety profiles deemed hazardous to public health and in violation of the food products registrations, regulations and pre-shipment inspections of the exports Act.
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The Customs boss equally displayed seized controlled equipment valued at N18 million, including 60 units of war drones, 53 helicopter drones, and 10 professional FM transceiver walkie-talkie intercepted at SIFAX terminal and ENL terminal, for lacking end-user certificates from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
Adeniyi described the seizures as part of intensified national efforts to curb transnational criminal networks exploiting Nigeria’s entry points, as importers deliberately conceal the true nature of their cargoes to evade detection.
The Customs boss revealed strategic smuggling trends based on intelligence analysis, which include mis-declaration of contents such as drugs labelled as cosmetics, diversification of contraband shipments (pharmaceuticals, expired food, drones combined), use of jurisdictions with weak export controls, rising non-pharmaceutical security threats and escalating financial scale of smuggling operations.
These patterns, he said, signal the involvement of organised transnational criminal syndicates, well beyond isolated attempts at smuggling.
He emphasised the organisation’s ongoing collaboration with key agencies like NAFDAC, NDLEA and the ONSA, noting that these partnerships, operating under joint frameworks and memoranda of understanding, have significantly boosted the country’s enforcement capabilities.
Also speaking, the Director of Ports Inspection, NAFDAC, Dr. Olakunle Daniel Olaniran, confirmed that some of the seized drugs carried fake registration numbers, and posed serious health risks to unsuspecting Nigerians.
He said one of the confiscated products was intended for industrial use in coal treatment but was fraudulently branded with a NAFDAC registration number originally issued for another product, which is the widely known pain medication, Tramadol.
Olaniran said another intercepted product was falsely marketed as a mental health medication, but lacked any legitimate pharmaceutical identification.
He also raised the alarm over a counterfeit version of Viagra, the prescription drug used to treat erectile dysfunction, noting that this medication must only be used under the supervision of a qualified medical doctor as interactions with other drugs can cause severe health complications, including death.
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