Four arrests at leading courier companies in Nigeria recently have exposed the dangerous complexity of illicit drugs trade, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations can now reveal.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said that the courier companies are EMS, FedEx Red Star and TNT.
The agency is worried that postal and courier houses are now being used by daring dealers as drug trafficking outlets.
Otunba Lanre Ipinmisho, director-general of the NDLEA said that the agency will not leave any stone unturned in its quest to track down drug barons.
According to Europol Report, 2006, the use of courier service as a legitimate business structure for drug trafficking is one of the specialized areas utilized by organized criminal groups around the world today.
Ipinmisho said that this strategy is used by criminal groups, hiding under the anonymity of postal services as most illegal drugs that are sent by post use fictitious names, post office boxes and private mailboxes, thereby making investigations difficult.
Beyond anonymity, speedy delivery of goods is another advantage drug traffickers exploit in courier services. As it is the trend in the advanced world, after they conclude their deals of buying and selling drugs on the internet, traffickers result to courier houses for speedy deliveries.
The challenges of using the postal services to ship drugs are not limited to Nigeria and there is international cooperation around the globe to ensure that the illegal practice is checked.
In the United States of America, a major operation of law enforcement agencies in 2000 called ‘Operation Green Air’ turned out to be an eye opener in the use of courier houses for drug trafficking.
Reports had it that an 18-month operation involving the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the US Customs Services(USCS), Internal Revenue Service(IRS), various U.S Attorneys’ offices, the Federal Express (FedEx) corporation and a variant of local law enforcement units led to the arrests of over 104 suspects, seizure of 35, 000 pounds of marijuana and $4.2 million .
Elsewhere in the Netherlands, Australia, Germany, the story is the same. In Nigeria, between 2007 and April this year, the NDLEA has made a total seizure of 3.684 kg of cocaine, 25.8kg of cannabis and 20kg of psychotropic substances in courier houses.
By most estimates, the traffic in illicit drugs is one of the world’s most substantial money earners.
The retail value of drugs is put at about $500 billion a year which exceeds the value of the international trade in oil and is second only to that of arms trade.
The consumption of illicit drugs not only has serious physical, social and economic consequences for the individual consumer, but also imposes enormous costs on society as a whole, and ultimately funds massive criminal systems.
