By Godwin Oritse

In a nationwide crackdown on smuggling, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) intercepted high-tech drones, unregistered pharmaceuticals, and other prohibited items valued at N912 billion between January and April 2025.

Speaking to journalists in Lagos, the Comptroller General of the NCS, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, said the operation was a targeted response to the evolving tactics used by both local and international criminal networks aiming to undermine Nigeria’s border security and bypass import regulations.

Adeniyi said that the Customs Service has ramped up surveillance at unauthorised entry points, including seaports, airports, and designated land borders.

He expressed concern over the influx of unregistered pharmaceutical products into the country, warning that many of these items lack regulatory approval and proper quality assurance. According to him, some of the intercepted drugs pose a serious public health risk and could lead to widespread illness or death if allowed into the domestic market.

He said: “Customs, in collaboration with other agencies of government, in exercise of our mandates, have therefore escalated our risk assessment protocols at all points of entry. And I’m going to be specifically talking about.

“And pursuant to the National Strategic Economic Development Plan and the executive order on port operations, we have intensified surveillance across unauthorised points of entries, specifically seaports, airports and approved land borders. This is in direct response to the adaptive methodologies being deployed by transactional, transnational criminal networks seeking to compromise our border security architecture and circumvent established import protocols. Of particular concern is the alarming prevalence of unregistered pharmaceutical products entering our supply chain without requisite regulatory approvals and quality assurance certifications.

“This item constitutes a clear present danger to public health with the potential to cause significant morbidity and mortality if permitted to infiltrate our domestic markets. Customs, in collaboration with other agencies of government, in exercise of our mandates, have therefore escalated our risk assessment protocols at all points of entry. And I’m going to be specifically talking about what has happened in this command, which, between January and April 2025, has executed a series of targeted interdictions resulting in the seizure of prohibited and restricted imports.

“These operations yielded a total of 11 seizures comprising five units of 40-foot containers, two units of 20-foot containers and four additional seizures of loosely concealed contraband items. We are going to be seeing them. The duty-paid values of all this amount to 921 billion naira.

“All these items fall into three different categories. The first category is that of unregistered pharmaceutical products lacking mandatory NAVDAC registration numbers and certification, which is a direct confirmation of Section 28 of NAVDAC Act, Cap N-1, laws of the Federation, and this constitutes 63.7% of the total seizures that we have today, more than half of them. In the second category are expired food items with compromised safety profiles that pose imminent danger to public health if introduced into the consumer market in violation of the food products registrations and regulations and pre-shipment inspections of exports act.

“The third category is that of controlled equipment, including drone technology and telecommunication devices imported without the requisite end-user certificates from the Office of the National Security Advisor. And if you want to break this down further, the first 40-foot container, CAAU6514500, has 89 cartons of unregistered pharmaceutical products. The second container, a 40-footer TCNU6880130, has 242 cartons of unregistered pharmaceutical products.

“The third 40-foot container, MRSU3041714, has 1,001 cartons and packages of hydra-sildenafil citrate tablets. These are also lacking requisite NAVDAC registrations. The third 40-foot container has 1,400 packages of original so-called original chest and lungs beta plus big booty tablets also unregistered.

“Number five is a 40-foot container which has 805 packages of unregistered products. This one was falsely declared as cosmetic powder. Then we also have a 20-foot container, GCNU1367992, which has expired margarine products.

“We also have a 20-foot container GCNU1372704, which has expired margarine products. 60 units of warrior drones, some of which we see down there; we are going to look at them. These drones were evacuated from container number MSKU9329923.

“It’s a 40-footer container, and none of those drones have end-user certificates. They are estimated to be valued at 15.9 million naira. We also have 53 units of different helicopter drones.

“These drones were evacuated from CFAX3 for lack of end-user certificates, and the duty-paid value is 2.1 million naira. We have 10 pieces of professional FM transceiver walkie-talkies. These are communication devices evacuated from ENL for lack of end-user certificates.

“We also have a 20-foot container, SUDU1408819, containing 500 packages of active medicine tablets without NAFTA registration. We went on to analyse all these seizures, and we have about five different patterns that we have seen. The first pattern is the proliferation of sexual enhancement drugs.

“Five of the level containers that we have today have various forms of sildanavir, citrix and related sexual enhancement medications. This is a disturbing trend in the importation of unregulated sexual performance drugs that pose serious health risks, including potential cardiovascular complications and harmful drug interactions when used without proper medical supervision. The second pattern is the strategic misdirection misdeclaration tactics.

“We have also observed a sophisticated pattern of wrong declaration where importers deliberately classify pharmaceuticals as general merchandise or cosmetics. Two of the containers that I talked about earlier had this pharmaceutical, but they used to conceal them with skin creams to hide them away from customers. The third is the diversification of contraband portfolio.

“Our seizures today revealed that importers are diversifying their contraband portfolios, combining pharmaceuticals, food items and control technology in systematic shipments. This suggests the emergence of organised networks with sophisticated capabilities rather than isolated smuggling attempts that we used to have. We also have the pattern of strategic country of origin selection.

“Our analysis reveals a pattern in the selection of countries of origin, with many consignments originating from jurisdictions with less stringent pharmaceutical export controls. This indicates deliberate exploitations of regulatory gaps in the international supply chain. We have also registered the escalation of non-pharmaceutical security threats and a pattern of financial scale.

“In terms of inter-agency collaboration and operational context, reference is hereby made to our ongoing collaboration with critical regulatory agencies, including but not limited to NABDAC, NDAA and the Office of the National Security Advisors. This collaboration operates under established memoranda of understanding and joint operational frameworks that have demonstratively enhanced our enforcement capacities. As documented in our joint operational report of January 2025, the nexus between unregistered pharmaceuticals, controlled substances and national security infrastructures continues to present a multidimensional threat matrix to our sovereignty.

“The empirical evidence drawn from our intelligence analysis indicates that these contraband items serve dual purposes, primarily as revenue generators for transnational criminal organisations and secondly for operational enablers of non-state actors engaging in activities that are prejudicial to national security.

“These seizures presented today must be contextualised within our broader enforcement statistics. During the first quarter of 2025, we recorded a total of 22 narcotics interceptions with a cumulative duty paid value of 730 billion naira, representing a 34.6 percent increase over the corresponding period in 2024.

“This particular data highlights the progressive implementation of our intelligence-led enforcement strategy. I hereby convey formal commendation to all our officers and men of APAPA Port Command particularly the proactive customs area controller, for their vigilance, professionalism and dedication to duty, which have successfully led us to this interception.”