Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted a large consignment of Canadian Loud, a high-potency strain of cannabis, weighing 4,173.5 kilogrammes, with a street value of over N10.4 billion, at Tin Can Island Port in Lagos.
According to the agency, “The successful interdiction of the illicit drug consignment followed painstaking intelligence gathering, sustained surveillance, and trailing of the container, which was trans-loaded a number of times since it left Toronto, Canada on March 28.”
It said the huge consignment was first conveyed by rail to Montreal, where it was loaded on board a vessel, Jakarta Express Voyage, which arrived at Tanger Med Port in Morocco on April 15, was discharged and reloaded on another vessel, Osaka Voyage, which eventually arrived at Lagos Port on Saturday, May 9, 2026.
“The over two months of monitoring the shipment by the Marine Intelligence Unit of NDLEA and the Tin Can Island Strategic Command of the agency, working in close collaboration with international partners, particularly the United Kingdom Home Office International Operations, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, culminated in the eventual seizure of the consignment on Tuesday, May 12, during a joint examination of the container by NDLEA operatives, men of the Customs Service and other security agencies,” the agency said.
The development comes barely four days after NDLEA operatives raided a Lekki mansion used as a stash house, where 4,000 parcels of the same psychoactive substance, weighing 2,326 kilogrammes and worth over N5.8 billion, were recovered.
The illicit drug consignments from Canada were professionally packed and concealed inside two vehicles: a used Ford bus and a Mercedes-Benz C300 car, stashed within the shipping container.
Speaking during the handover of the exhibits by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at the port in Lagos on Wednesday, the NDLEA’s Director of Seaports Operations, ACG Ibinabo ArchieAbia, said the “achievement once again demonstrates the effectiveness of inter-agency cooperation, international collaboration, and intelligence-driven operations in combating transnational organized crime and illicit drug trafficking.”
Reacting to the development, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Marwa (Rtd), commended the officers of the Tin Can Command and the MIU of the agency for their vigilance and professional conduct.
He noted that the volume of recent Loud seizures highlights a coordinated attempt by international drug syndicates to flood the Nigerian market with synthetic strains of cannabis.
“This second massive seizure in less than a week is a clear message to the international syndicates who think they can use our ports as entry points for their soul-destroying trade, that the synergy between NDLEA and Customs Service, as well as other security agencies and our international partners like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the UK-HOIO and the US DEA, is yielding fantastic results.
“We will not rest until every link in this supply chain is broken and those behind these shipments are brought to justice,” Marwa stated.
Credit: The Sun