The Nigeria Customs Service, Zone ‘C’, Owerri, Imo State, yesterday impounded a truck cannabis, worth N111,137,500.00.
The drugs, stuffed into 1,017 50kg bags and loaded in a 1×40 feet container, marked MRKU 254564, were confiscated on Benin-Sagamu Road.
The suspect, James Idoko, who allegedly offered officers N350,000 bribe, was arrested after trying to present fake documents.
Area Controller Mohammed Garba said renewed clampdown on the illicit activity followed “increasing tempo of crimes, violence and juvenile delinquency among youths.”
He added: “The consumption of cannabis affects family relationship. We must fight it to ensure a better society.”
Garba, who handed over the items and the suspect to the Principal Staff Officer, Operation and Intelligence, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Edo State, Timothy Adewole, assured Nigerians Customs will collaborate with NDLEA, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and others to smoothen its operations.
He said his men intercepted a truck, registered as GBB 85 XA, conveying adulterated petroleum product on Aba-Owerri Road.
The area controller said the exhibit was hidden in a tank for illegal bunkering and concealed with 256 sacks of expired animal feed, to beat security checks.
He said another truck, KRV 238 XB, “carrying 725 brands of 50 kg foreign rice with Duty Paid Value of N24, 650,000, suspected to have been smuggled into the country through the creeks in Calabar/Cameroun border, was also intercepted by his men.”