Apapa Customs Confiscates N921m in Contraband: Drones, Sexual Enhancement Drugs, Unregistered Pharmaceuticals and Others
Kathy Kyari
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has seized goods worth N921 million between January and April 2025, dealing a serious blow to smuggling operations. High-tech drones, food items that had gone bad, and an alarming stash of unregistered medicinal medications were among the goods that were confiscated.
Speaking to reporters at the Apapa Port Command in Lagos on Wednesday, the Comptroller General, Adewale Adeniyi said the crackdown was a part of a concerted effort to combat changing strategies employed by both domestic and foreign criminal networks to weaken Nigeria's border security and import laws.
According to Adeniyi, there is now far more surveillance at all unapproved access sites, including as seaports, airports, and authorised land borders. He expressed concern about the surge of unregistered medications, pointing out that many of them are dangerous for the public's health and lack regulatory approval.
“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." Adeniyi said.
“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.”
Among the seized goods were disturbing quantities of pharmaceuticals, including 1,001 cartons of Hydra-Sildenafil Citrate tablets from a 40-foot container (MRSU3041714), as well as 1,400 packages of unregistered sexual enhancement pills dubbed “original chest and lungs beta plus big booty tablets.”
Another 40-foot container carried 805 packages of unregistered products falsely declared as cosmetic powder. Two separate 20-foot containers—GCNU1367992 and GCNU1372704—contained expired margarine products.
The crackdown also exposed the smuggling of advanced technology. Customs recovered 60 units of warrior drones from container MSKU9329923, all lacking end-user certificates and collectively valued at N15.9 million. Additionally, 53 helicopter drones were seized from CFAX3 with a duty-paid value of N2.1 million. Professional FM transceiver walkie-talkies were also confiscated for the same reason.
One container, SUDU1408819, was found with 500 packages of active medicinal tablets, again lacking NAFDAC registration.
According to Adeniyi, the NCS has identified five troubling patterns from the seizures.
“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.” He said.
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