…intercepts cocaine, meth, tramadol and skunk across MMIA, Enugu, Warri, Kwara and Seme border
By Nkechi Eze
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intensified its crackdown on drug trafficking networks, making a series of high-profile arrests involving international couriers, businessmen, and a former professional footballer at major airports and border locations across Nigeria.
In a dramatic operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, NDLEA operatives arrested former Nigerian international footballer, Segun George Hunkarin, alongside his business associate, Ntoruka Emmanuel Chinedu, for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the country. According to a signed statement by the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, Chinedu was apprehended upon arrival on Tuesday, 24 June 2025, from Turkey via Addis Ababa aboard Ethiopian Airlines. A search of his carry-on luggage revealed 37 wraps of cocaine weighing 800 grams.
Further investigations revealed that the consignment was handed to him during his transit in Addis Ababa, with Hunkarin, who had once played professional football in Brazil, waiting at the airport carpark in Lagos to receive the drugs. He was immediately tracked and arrested. During interrogation, Hunkarin admitted to trafficking drugs twice in the past from Brazil to Ethiopia, but claimed he had never smuggled any into Nigeria.
Also at MMIA, NDLEA officers arrested Amen Okoro Godstime, a Europe-based logistics operator, on Friday, 27 June, as he attempted to smuggle 5,000 pills of tramadol 225mg disguised as anti-malarial drugs like Lonart, Amatem, and Aluktem to Spain. The suspect, who was intercepted during clearance for a Royal Air Maroc flight, confessed he intended to forward the shipment to Italy for retail after travelling via Spain and France.
At the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu, two separate interceptions were made on Friday, 27 June. A bar attendant based in Maputo, Mozambique, Ezenwaka Chibuzor Emmanuel, was caught with 17 parcels of methamphetamine weighing 17.5 kilograms and three parcels of cocaine weighing 3.05 kilograms. The drugs were concealed inside bedsheets in his luggage, and he had arrived from Johannesburg through Addis Ababa.
On the same flight, 54-year-old Azu Follygan Kpodar, who arrived from São Paulo, Brazil, was found with liquid cocaine disguised in a branded liquid soap container. The suspicious substance tested positive to cocaine at the agency’s forensic lab and weighed 1.25 kilograms. Kpodar, a toy seller in Brinquedo, São Paulo, claimed he had purchased the item while shopping for his upcoming wedding in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives at the Seme border in Badagry intercepted 26-year-old Beninese national, Vode Jean-Luck, attempting to smuggle 69 balls of skunk, a potent cannabis variant into Nigeria. The consignment weighed a total of 29.5 kilograms.
In Kwara State, a notorious drug dealer, Mary Bolanle Oladele, popularly known as Iya Nafi, was arrested during a raid on her base in Omu-Aran, Irepodun LGA. Officers recovered various quantities of skunk, tramadol, and flunitrazepam. In another operation in Delta State, a 72-year-old grandmother, Mrs. Christy Ejaro, was arrested on Tuesday, 24 June, at the Niger CAT area of Warri with sachets of skunk packaged for retail distribution.
Beyond enforcement, the agency continued its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns in schools nationwide. Lectures and advocacy sessions were held at Yakubawa Model Primary School in Katsina; Police Secondary School in Igboora, Oyo; Divine Favour International School in Bende, Abia; Command Day Secondary School, Ojoo, Ibadan; Mater Dei College in Udi, Enugu; Community Girls Secondary School in Yenagoa, Bayelsa; and Fiyinfolu High School, Ikole Ekiti.
Commending the efforts of the officers and commands involved, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised personnel from MMIA, AIIA, Delta, Kwara, and Seme Commands for their latest string of arrests and seizures. He also lauded all NDLEA formations nationwide for striking a balance between drug supply reduction and demand control through proactive enforcement and sustained public sensitisation.
