By Nkechi Eze
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has dealt a major blow to an international cocaine trafficking syndicate with the arrest of a key female kingpin, Shodunke Yetunde Simbiat, who had been on the run for over a year, and the recovery of 23.50 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside her children’s room in Lagos.
The arrest comes nearly twenty months after NDLEA operatives dismantled a cocaine cartel led by a couple, Bolanle Lookman Dauda and Olayinka Toheebat Dauda, in Lagos and Ogun states, seizing multi-billion-naira worth of illicit drugs. Shodunke, identified as a critical stash keeper and operational link in the syndicate, reportedly went underground in May 2024 following the initial crackdown.
In an official statement signed by the Director of Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, the agency disclosed that sustained intelligence gathering and surveillance eventually led operatives to Shodunke’s residence at 31 Onasanya Street, Surulere, Lagos, where she was arrested on Tuesday, 9 December 2025. A thorough search of the house uncovered blocks of cocaine weighing 23.50 kilograms hidden in a black suitcase inside her children’s room. The suspect reportedly admitted ownership of the consignment, estimated to be worth over ₦5 billion in street value.
Babafemi recalled that the syndicate’s ringleaders, Lookman Dauda and his wife, Toheebat, were arrested on Saturday, 25 May 2024, by operatives of the NDLEA Special Operations Unit at Ibiye, along the Lagos–Badagry Expressway, while attempting to cross the land border to deliver cocaine to Ghana. At the point of arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5 kilograms were recovered from them. A follow-up search of their residence at Plot 24/25, OPIC Extension, Petedo Road, Agbara, Ogun State, led to the seizure of an additional eight blocks weighing 10 kilograms, bringing the total cocaine recovered from the couple to 57.5 kilograms.
The arrest of Shodunke, according to the agency, underscores NDLEA’s resolve to track down and dismantle every layer of organised drug trafficking networks operating within and across Nigeria’s borders.
In another major interdiction, NDLEA operatives at the Terminal II departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, intercepted a 36-year-old businessman, Nwanwene Robinson Destiny, on Thursday, 18 December, while he was attempting to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Milan, Italy. A search of his luggage revealed 1,020 pills of tramadol 225mg and tapentadol 200mg concealed inside. The suspect claimed that he was to be paid €200 upon successful delivery of the opioids in Italy, where he is based.
At the Seme border in the Badagry area of Lagos, NDLEA officers on the same day arrested a 48-year-old Beninoise national, Leocardi Josu, while he was attempting to cross into Nigeria with 3,400 tablets of tramadol 225mg. Similarly, along the Okene–Lokoja highway in Kogi State, a 30-year-old suspect, Abdullahi Adamu, was apprehended on Friday, 19 December, with 28.4 kilograms of skunk, a strain of cannabis, as well as Colorado, a synthetic variant.
In Oyo State, NDLEA operatives on Friday, 19 December, intercepted a Toyota Hiace bus marked XD 592 AWL along the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, recovering 125,000 capsules of tramadol and 1,800 ampoules of pentazocine injection. Earlier, on Wednesday, 17 December, two suspects, Ogunlade Kazeem, 54, and Adeleke Ismail, 30, were arrested at Challenge Motor Park, Ibadan, with 185.4 kilograms of skunk.
Further operations in Osun State led to the seizure of 405 kilograms of skunk during a raid on Owena/Ijesha forest, where a 45-year-old suspect, Charles James, was arrested on Friday, 19 December. On the same day, NDLEA officers along the Abuja–Kaduna highway apprehended a 42-year-old suspect, Jamilu Zakari, with 14,960 pills of tramadol 225mg concealed in two kolanut sacks. The opioids were reportedly being transported from Abuja to Gusau, Zamfara State.
Beyond enforcement operations, the agency said its officers continued intensive War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities across the country in the past week. These included enlightenment lectures in secondary schools and community centres in Anambra State, engagements at the Women Development Centre in Awka, outreach at the Youth Craft Village in Malumfashi, Katsina State, and awareness sessions with members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, among others.
Commending the officers and men of the Special Operations Unit, MMIA, Seme, Kogi, Kaduna, Oyo, and Osun Commands for their professionalism and operational effectiveness, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), urged them and other personnel nationwide to remain extra vigilant during the festive season. He stressed the need to maintain the highest standards of professionalism in both drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts, not only during the holidays but beyond.
The latest arrests and seizures, the agency said, reaffirm NDLEA’s unwavering commitment to disrupting drug trafficking networks, protecting communities, and safeguarding public health and national security.
