Kwara state command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA),has declared the state as a hot spot for drug trafficking because of its geographical location as a gateway between the northern and southern states of the federation.

The state Commander of the agency,Dr.SegunOke, made the declaration in Ilorin on Wednesday while responding to questions during a familiarisation visit to the correspondent chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kwara state.

The NDLEA boss, however, said a total of 46 suspects were arrested in the fourth quarter of 2012 including a female, out of which 7 of were convicted.

Oke said the command had intensified its surveillance on borders in the state to track the movement of illicit or contraband drugs into the state.

"The state is in the middle of the country and there is a lot of network of traffic; vehicular traffic. So, we rate Kwara as a hot spot for trafficking. Our assessment so far has not helped us to determine how hot Kwara is in terms of coordination. We are working on that but by default Kwara is in the middle of the country.

"If you take the map of the road, you would see that you can pass from Oyo state to the North. You can pass from here to Lokoja. Again, traffic can move to Okene (Kogi state) into this place.

"Therefore, what we did in terms of assessment is to look at those places where cultivation is taking place and see how they can feed Kwara in terms of transportation. That is why I am describing Kwara as hot in trafficking because of vehicular movement."

On the success recorded by the command in 2012,the NDLEA boss added that the command during the year seized 206.514kg.of Cannabis Sativa, 1.887kg of  Psychotropics with a total weight of 208.401kg.

He said the command also "counselled and released 18 drug users, while 7 clients are undergoing counselling and rehabilitation."