By Tunde Ojudun<\/p>\n
The Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, has intercepted 473 smuggling attempts in just eight weeks, resulting in major seizures including four cylinders of mercury (80kg each), 3,340 parcels of synthetic cannabis (\u201cGhana Loud\u201d) weighing 1,540kg, 22 new vehicles, and 8,794 bags of imported rice (equivalent to 15 trailer loads).<\/p>\n
Other confiscated items include: 1,863 used refrigerator compressors (environmental hazard), 328 bales of used clothing, 1,188 kegs of vegetable oil (25 litres each), 31,705 litres of Premium Motor Spirit, 485 used tyres, 69 cartons of spaghetti, 29 bags of sugar (foreign origin), and 531 cartons of frozen poultry.<\/p>\n
Comptroller Gambo Aliyu announced the seizures, stressing intensified measures against smugglers under Operation HAWK, designed to curb illicit trade, safeguard revenue, and protect society from criminal vices. He emphasized the unit\u2019s commitment to dismantling drug syndicates, noting traffickers\u2019 evolving methods and the need for stronger intelligence-sharing among security agencies.<\/p>\n
The controller noted that officers at Gbaji Outpost intercepted a Toyota Highlander driven by 71-year-old Oni Euridia Martins. The vehicle contained eight parcels of cocaine valued at approximately \u20a62.35 billion. The consignment was seized along the Lagos-Abidjan corridor.<\/p>\n
Aliyu highlighted interagency collaboration, revealing that cannabis and cocaine seizures will be handed over to the NDLEA for prosecution. He also disclosed the interception of mercury concealed in a Toyota Avensis, stressing its environmental dangers and regulation under the Minamata Convention.<\/p>\n
Between February 3 and April 28, 2026, the unit recorded a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of \u20a65.5 billion from seizures and recovered \u20a697.7 million in unpaid duties. Aliyu described these achievements as proof of the unit\u2019s operational efficiency and contribution to national revenue mobilization.<\/p>\n
He further noted that the FOU is advancing digitalization, deploying geospatial intelligence, satellite imagery, drone surveillance, and predictive analytics to monitor smuggling hotspots across Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, and Ondo states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tunde Ojudun The Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, has intercepted 473 smuggling attempts in just eight weeks, resulting in major seizures including four cylinders of mercury (80kg each), 3,340 parcels of synthetic cannabis (\u201cGhana Loud\u201d) weighing 1,540kg, 22 new vehicles, and 8,794 bags of imported rice (equivalent to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10176,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10174\/revisions\/10176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}