Argentina’s Customs, customs officers have found packages containing 536 kilograms (1,181 pounds) ofcocaine hidden inside a machine to be exported to Nigeria on Friday in Buenos Aires, Argentina. AP. The drugs were discovered by two drug-sniffing dogs (Tota and Gala) in the heavy equipment.
According to Maria Siomara Ayeran, the director-general of Argentina’s customs agency, the cocaine was tightly packed into 490 brightly colored bricks and stuffed into heavy dredging equipment being flown from the international airport in Buenos Aires to an oil company in Lagos, Nigeria.
She pointed out that the company in Africa doesn’t exist, and the exporter was under such suspicion that all its shipments are exhaustively searched. Once the dogs (Tota and Gala) marked the spot, officers opened up the machinery late Thursday and found 536 kilos of pure cocaine inside thick walls of lead and steel. She said it was most likely intended for the streets of Europe, where it would be worth nearly $25 million (about N4bn).
Ayeran said it’s the first time the Argentine government has confiscated such a large shipment of cocaine being smuggled by air from Buenos Aires to Nigeria. In her words, “Today the link with Africa is a new route that they are exploiting and is in development.” Meanwhile, the customs agency said the suspects were known to investigators and the case was handed over to a judge who ordered six pre-dawn raids to accumulate more evidence. Officials said the identities of the people and companies involved could not be released because the case was being kept sealed while under investigation.
No comments:
Post a Comment