The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has seized a staggering N921 billion worth of illicit goods, including five containers of unregulated sex-enhancement drugs, six containers of banned pharmaceuticals, expired food products, and restricted security equipment, all intercepted at the Apapa Port between January and April 2025.
Addressing journalists during the public display of the contraband, Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, attributed the successful operation to advanced surveillance systems and risk assessment strategies, in line with the National Strategic Economic Development Plan and the Presidential Executive Order on Port Operations.
Adeniyi revealed that the seizures comprised five 40-foot containers, two 20-foot containers, and four additional batches of items that were covertly smuggled in, with a combined duty value of N921 billion. He said the bulk of the pharmaceutical haul included unregulated sexual performance enhancers.
“A particularly alarming trend was the proliferation of unregulated sexual performance enhancers, which constituted the bulk of pharmaceutical seizures. These drugs pose significant cardiovascular risks when consumed without medical supervision,” the CGC warned.
He noted that 73.7% of the intercepted pharmaceuticals lacked registration or certification from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and were falsely declared as cosmetic powder—an outright violation of Section 28 of the NAFDAC Act.
Also seized were expired food products such as margarine found in two 20-foot containers, deemed hazardous to public health and non-compliant with Nigeria’s food product registration and export inspection regulations.
The Customs boss further unveiled contraband military-grade equipment valued at N18 million—including 60 war drones, 53 helicopter drones, and 10 FM transceiver walkie-talkies—intercepted at the SIFAX and ENL terminals.
These lacked end-user certificates from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
He linked the seizures to increasingly sophisticated smuggling strategies involving transnational criminal networks.
These networks, he said, employ tactics such as misdeclaration of cargo, mixing pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical contraband, exploiting weak export jurisdictions, and orchestrating large-scale illegal shipments.
“These patterns signal the involvement of organised transnational criminal syndicates, well beyond isolated attempts at smuggling,” Adeniyi said.
He stressed that joint operations with agencies like NAFDAC, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and the ONSA have significantly improved detection and enforcement through coordinated frameworks and MOUs.
Corroborating the Customs’ findings, NAFDAC’s Director of Ports Inspection, Dr. Olakunle Daniel Olaniran, revealed that several of the seized drugs had fake registration numbers.
“One of the confiscated products was intended for industrial use in coal treatment but was fraudulently branded with a NAFDAC registration number originally issued for another product, which is the widely known pain medication, Tramadol,” Olaniran disclosed.
He added that another product, falsely advertised as a mental health drug, lacked any legitimate pharmaceutical identification.
He also warned about counterfeit versions of Viagra among the seizures.
“This medication must only be used under the supervision of a qualified medical doctor as interactions with other drugs can cause severe health complications, including death,” he cautioned.
The NCS reiterated its commitment to disrupting illegal imports, protecting public health, and securing Nigeria’s borders through intensified collaboration and intelligence-sharing.
