Officers from the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS)’s Federal Operations Unit, Zone B, in Kaduna State, have impounded 61 smuggled Sports Utility Vehicles, textile products, and pharmaceuticals with a total Duty Paid Value of N2.8 billion.
According to the FOU Comptroller, Dalha Wada, the smuggled automobiles were detained from smugglers at various locations in the North-Central and North-West zones as a result of the intelligence push and better techniques to boost the service’s operational performances.
The comptroller also raised the alarm that some smugglers had devised new methods to evade arrest by hiring bandits in the northern region to smuggle contraband products into the country, in addition to creating several new illegal routes to smuggle their illicit items.
He noted that within a period of three months, the unit had made a total of 242 seizures of 21 different items.
Among the seized items were 61 SUVs with fake government plate numbers obtained by smugglers in order to evade the prying eyes of vigilant officers at the nation’s borders in the North-West zone.
Displaying the seized items for journalists, Wada described the smugglers as enemies of the country that must be crushed by all means.
He also raised the alarm at how smugglers have devised new methods of evading arrest by hiring bandits to aid their criminal activities.
Other items impounded by the unit included over 2,000 bags of foreign parboiled rice, cartons of vegetable oil, bales of foreign second-hand clothes and shoes as well as drugs, which the comptroller handed over to the representative of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for further prosecution.