NDLEA raises alarm over upsurge in Maritime drug trafficking.

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has decried the upsurge in Maritime drug trafficking from Ghana to Nigeria in recent time.

Udotong Essen, Area Commander, Seme Area Command of NDLEA, said this when he was receiving the 820 wraps of cannabis seized by the Western Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service in Lagos, recently.

The amphibian arm of the Customs earlier in the week handed over close to one tone of seized cannabis to the anti drug agency at its headquarter.

The NDLEA boss explained that the upsurge is as a result of the preference of the Ghanaian grown weed to the local species, stating that the Ghanaian genre is costlier.

“There is an upsurge of Maritime drug trafficking from Ghana to Nigeria. There is a preference for this genre of cannabis and it is costlier than the ones grown in Nigeria.

Speaking on the frequency of seizure, Essen said it was an annual occurrence even as he commended the Controller of the command, Comptroller Biliyila Bingo for being forthright to declare and hand over to the the appropriate agency.

“This is not the first time doing it here. It is almost an annual event and sometimes, twice in a year that successive controllers of Customs hand over cannabis seizures from the water.

“It is one thing to make seizure and quite another thing to do the right thing. It takes integrity for the Controller to transfer this amount of seizures.

“This is a seizure of over thirty million naira and I am very sure if he wanted to compromise, he would have gotten such amount of money but he said no.