Thursday, October 5, 2017

Customs nabs eight for N356m fake cables, other contraband

Officials of the Anti-Smuggling Unit of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit, Zone A , Lagos, have arrested eight smugglers with containers of fake drugs,  cables and other contraband valued  at N356.2 million.

It was learnt that the N18 million fake cables were declared falsely as made in Nigerian cables.
The Customs also seized three containers imported from India laden with N31.5 million fake drugs without appropriate import documents and certifications.
One of the containers is laden with fake lemdafil, a drug used in boosting manpower and inducing prostitution.
The Comptroller of the unit, Mohammed Garba, said in Lagos yesterday that 14 containers with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N104.6 were seized for false declaration and breach of Customs law.
He noted that seven of the containers were laden with unprocessed wood, while one was carrying scrap metals and another with wet blue for exports, which fell under export prohibition list.
The comptroller added that 4,227 bags of rice valued at N52.13 million were seized last Friday.
He said that 12 smugglers were already facing trial at Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and Federal High Court.
Garba listed other seizures to include 11 used vehicles, 980 cartons of frozen poultry, 189 jerry cans of vegetable oil, 84 parcels of India hemp, load of donkey skins, 907 pieces of used tyres, scrap metals, wet blue, unprocessed wood, 249 bales of used clothing and 268 pairs of shoes.
Other seizures include two Lexus Jeep - GX 460 and RX330, one Toyota RAV 4, Two Toyota Camry, five Mercedes Benz and one Iveco truck, ranging from 2007 and 2013 models respectively.
Garba said that apart from the 11 vehicles valued at N125.4 million, other 17 assorted vehicles of various models were in detention.
According to him, the vehicles were seized from car marts due to infractions noticed in their documents.
He said: “As I speak with you, they have not been able to provide relevant Customs papers on the vehicles valued at N141,8 million.
“Based on information, we trailed and evacuated 3,000 bags of smuggled rice from 10 houses along waterside at Ere village in Ado-Odo Local Government Area of Ogun State. As we were evacuating the rice from one house to others, the villagers were also busy packing the rice to the bush through other exit.”
The comptroller explained that the evacuation was achieved through the support of the military from 9 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Ikeja.
Reacting, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC)’s Assistant Director, Investigation and Enforcement. Mr, Declan Ugwu, said that the fake drug, called man power, was being used to boost prostitution in the country.
He said that the agency needed other sister agencies like Customs in actualising its mandate.
The assistant director said that the drug was imported from India without due process.
He said: “This is an easy cash; the level of prostitution in the country is very high. Whoever is importing this is sure of selling it. The law in NAFDAC does not allow this kind of packaging into the country.”

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