…freight agent and auto-parts dealer arrested after airport interception of cocaine-laden components
By Nkechi Eze
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intensified its nationwide offensive against drug trafficking organisations, dismantling at least six major syndicates and arresting nine suspected kingpins in a wave of intelligence-led operations that swept through multiple states over the past week. The operations, executed across airports, highways, warehouses and urban enclaves, led to the interception of tons of assorted illicit drugs, including consignments hidden in machine cylinders, automobile parts and even flight boarding passes.
In an official statement, the Agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed that one of the most striking interceptions occurred on Tuesday, 18 November 2025, when NDLEA operatives arrested two members of a drug trafficking syndicate in Onitsha, Anambra State after they arrived to take delivery of a consignment smuggled in from South Africa. The shipment, which arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, on a Tag-Angola flight with airway bill number 118-12882973, contained 5.40 kilograms of methamphetamine, 10.70 kilograms of Loud cannabis, 16 grams of cocaine, 200 grams each of phenacetin and methcathinone, and 100 grams of caffeine, all concealed in pressure machine cylinders.
The suspects, 30-year-old electrical appliances dealer Ebulue Lotanwa Uzochukwu and 51-year-old South Africa returnee Christopher Michael Ndibuisi, were arrested in rapid succession during a sting operation at a logistics company in Onitsha shortly after the container was flagged and seized at the airport.
Another interception at the Lagos airport followed on Thursday, 20 November, where NDLEA officers discovered a brake servo automobile part stuffed with 48 pellets and a block of cocaine weighing 2.30 kilograms. After arresting a freight agent, Ameh Solomon, who presented the shipment for export to Gabon, operatives trailed the supply chain to the ASMPDA market at the Trade Fair Complex in Ojo, Lagos, where an auto parts dealer, Nwafor Tochukwu Boniface, was arrested.
In Kogi State, operatives halted a trailer carrying 4,700 kilograms of skunk along the Kabba axis on Monday, 17 November. Arrested with the consignment were three men, Solomon Dauda, Friday Garba and Daniel Danladi. A coordinated follow-up operation in Jos, Plateau State, on Friday, 21 November, led to the arrest of the alleged owner of the trailer and the drugs, Marcus Danladi Dan Mangu.
The crackdown extended to Cross River State on Wednesday, 19 November, where a couple, 55-year-old Onun Okoi Okpotum and his 52-year-old wife Itam Okoi Okpotum, were arrested at their warehouse on Park Road, Ugep, Yakur LGA. NDLEA operatives recovered 362 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 4,706 kilograms from the facility.
In Edo State, two women, Praise Nwogu, 19, and Ebong Emem Oghosa, 25, were arrested in Benin City for producing and selling drug-laced brownies online. Nwogu was found with 12 plates and a cup of brownies, while Oghosa was caught with 76 grams of skunk, 1.5 grams of Colorado and additional brownies. In the same state, a raid in Ososo village, Akoko Edo LGA, on Tuesday, 18 November, led to the arrest of 35-year-old Shedrack Aminu with 59 kilograms of skunk.
On the Enugu–Onitsha highway, operatives intercepted 24-year-old Chinoso Emmanuel Monday on Wednesday, 19 November, with 10.1 kilograms of skunk, 105,600 pills of tramadol of different strengths, 700 ampoules of pentazocine injection and 3,000 rounds of live ammunition.
Kebbi State also recorded significant seizures, including 13,155 bottles of codeine-based syrup recovered from a warehouse in Dole-Kaina, Dandi LGA. In a related operation, a 23-year-old suspect, Umar Adamu, was arrested with 12,548 opioid pills concealed in paracetamol containers and allegedly heading to a Boko Haram enclave in Minok, Borno State, on Friday, 21 November.
More arrests followed in the FCT and Niger State, where two suspects, Anthony Mercy, 40, and Sunday Augustine, 39, were apprehended with 430.5 kilograms of cannabis along the Abaji–Abuja Expressway on Monday, 17 November. Another suspect, Samson Dafe, 47, was arrested the next day at Dikko junction in Tafa LGA, Niger State, with 85,100 opioid pills and 5,456 bottles of codeine syrup. A raid on the premises of one Sani Mohammed in Anguwan Makera Kuta, Shiroro LGA, yielded 437 blocks of compressed skunk weighing 471.8 kilograms.
In Lagos, 71 kilograms of Canadian Loud stuffed into 139 pouches were recovered in Lekki, with a suspect, Usman Ayoola Adegoke, arrested. Another lady, Oluchi Celestine, was also arrested on Tuesday, 18 November, with 2.6 kilograms of Colorado hidden inside branded containers and flight boarding cards. A joint operation with military personnel on Monday, 17 November, targeted the notorious Peti drug enclave on Lagos Island, where 385 kilograms of skunk, Loud and Colorado were recovered and two suspects arrested. Another haul of 163,200 tramadol capsules was seized at the Maza Maza motor park.
Meanwhile, NDLEA formations across the country sustained their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign, taking sensitisation programmes to schools, worship centres and communities. Beneficiaries included institutions in Oyo, Lagos, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, Enugu and Ogun states.
Commending the commands involved, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), urged officers to maintain the Agency’s balanced approach to drug control. He explained that the intensified clampdown was timely, given the tendency of trafficking networks to exploit the festive season to escalate illegal activities. “The coming weeks present both an opportunity and a challenge. Drug cartels may attempt to increase their illegal activities, seeking to profit during the busy holiday period. We must not, and we will not, let down our guard,” he warned.
