Customs intercept N160m worth India hemp smuggled from Ghana

The Nigerian Customs Service on Wednesday said its men had intercepted India Hemp worth of N160 million from a smuggler from Ghana.

According to Customs, the contraband was discovered in a pick-up van, which was purportedly conveying sawdust by men of the Oyo/Osun Command of the Nigeria Customs Service in the Oke Ogun area of Oyo State at the Nigerian border with the Republic of Benin.

It was gathered that the operatives discovered the N160m worth of Indian hemp was concealed under the sawdust which was contained in the pick-up van.

The Controller of the command, Zulkifli Abdullahi, while briefing journalists on the development on Wednesday said the marijuana was in several packs when discovered by his men.

Abdullahi said the consignment was the biggest volume of illicit drugs seized by the command in recent times.

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He stated that the driver of the vehicle and his motor boy fled into a thick forest on sighting his men.

The custom boss also revealed that intelligence report had indicated that the Indian hemp was heading for Nigeria from Ghana through Togo and Benin Republic.

His words: “As you can see, we have 101 bags of India hemp and 1,047 blocks of compressed special Indian hemp. According to what we learnt, three years ago, the compressed blocks of hemp sold for N120,000 each in Kaduna; and today, it may go for N150,000.

“If you add the value of the bags, which is N20,000 each, the Indian hemp is worth N159m, or approximately N160m. I know it was God and the efforts of our officers that helped us to intercept this volume of Indian hemp, because it is only God, who knows the damages this could have done to our country and our youths if it had made its way into the country.

“It probably was heading for the North, because our people take much of this thing in the North, but wherever it was heading for, we are appealing to our people to desist from taking this. It is very annoying. We are not going to relent in the fight against smuggling.”

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