The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said the recent discovery of clandestine laboratories for the production of methamphetamine and the seizures of captagon, fentanyl, and other deadly substances in Nigeria further underscores the growing threat of illicit drugs to public health and national security.
The Chairman NDLEA Mohamed Buba Marwa who stated this in Lagos on Monday at the Global Rapid Interdiction of Dangerous Substances (GRIDS) twinning program organized by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) stressed that if drug trafficking cartels can maintain effective network across the globe, it is expedient for drug law enforcement agencies to forge a clear formidable lead ahead of them to win this all-important fight.
According to him, multi-agency training on real-time communication, intelligence tools, awareness raising, and the handling of dangerous substances, were essential to put the menace of drug trafficking in the bud.
“This will help to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement and regulatory officers across regions and promote faster and more effective cooperation among participating countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam. Other benefits include intelligence sharing and officer exchange programs, which are vital to the dislodgment of transnational drug trafficking groups.”
While emphasising the need for greater partnership among nations, the NDLEA boss promised that the Agency will continue to take every step aimed at increasing local and international collaboration adding that efforts were on to tighten the noose against drug traffickers.
On his part, Craig Nixon of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, INL, US Department of State, said the US will continue to engage foreign partners to attain more impactful counter-narcotics and law enforcement outcomes as new modality of synthetic drug trafficking poses a significant challenge to the United States.
In his remarks, Regional Technical Officer for the INCB’s GRIDS program in West and Central Africa, Amari Bedi Olivier congratulated NDLEA over what he described as ”historic seizure of Fentanyl” describing it as is frightening Africa.
