Nigeria's drug agency seized a record 1.8 tonnes of cocaine, worth $278million, from a Lagos warehouse in what it described on Monday as possibly the largest seizure ever carried out in the country.
Five people - the warehouse manager and four "drug lords" including a Jamaican - have been arrested in connection with drugs , the national drug enforcement agency said. She said the suspects were members of an international drug syndicate that the agency has been tracking since 2018.
The agency said the drugs were found in a remote area in the Ikorodu area of Lagos on Sunday, at a time when "the cartel was trying to sell them to buyers in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world."_The drugs were stored in ten duffel bags and 13 barrels , the agency said in a statement released with photos of the suspects and the drugs.
The agency said the description of the arrests and seizure was "a historic blow to the drug cartels and a strong warning that they will all fall if they don't realize the game has changed" .
Drug seizures increased in West Africa last year, indicating that traffickers have turned the continent into a hub for transporting their illegal products between South America and Europe.