The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a major shipment of illicit opioids worth N2.1 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and arrested suspects with cocaine and opioids at airports in Abuja and Enugu.
The agency, in a statement by its spokesperson Femi Babafemi on Sunday, said its operatives recovered 1,825,710 tablets of Tapentadol 250mg on Friday, 22 May 2026, after monitoring the consignment from its arrival from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight.
“The 29 cartons of drugs, valued at N2,190,852,000, were handed over to the NDLEA by the Nigeria Customs Service at the airport’s import shed,” the statement said.
In a separate operation, NDLEA officers at Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, arrested Onyeka Valentine Emeka on 20 May during the inward clearance of an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sierra Leone via Addis Ababa.
The suspect excreted 185.36 grams of cocaine while under observation.
At Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, a 29-year-old building engineer, Babatunde Prosper Afekhide, was arrested on 21 May while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Milan, Italy.
A search of his luggage uncovered 10,280 pills of Tramaking 225mg, Tramadol 200mg and Tapentadol 250mg concealed in foil paper and hidden inside a suitcase.
NDLEA also intercepted drug shipments at a Lagos courier company, including 1,174 pills of MDMA hidden in a bicycle luggage carrier headed for the Netherlands, 66 tramadol pills concealed in a soap container bound for the U.S., and 18 tramadol tablets hidden in a body cream container destined for the UK.
In Edo State, operatives raided Igwe community in Owan East LGA and recovered 59 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 489kg and 9kg of cannabis seeds. In Ekiti State, a raid on a warehouse in Ikole-Ekiti on 23 May led to the seizure of 1,116kg of skunk and the arrest of 54-year-old Ogundana Adebayo Julius.
Other arrests and seizures were recorded in Kano, where 196,000 pills of exol-5 were recovered along the Zaria/Kano road, and at Seme border in Lagos, where 59kg of skunk was found in a warehouse in Mowo, Badagry.
NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended officers of the MMIA, NAIA, AIIA, Edo, Ekiti, Seme, and Kano Commands for the operations. He urged them to maintain the balance between drug supply reduction and the agency’s War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation campaigns in schools and communities nationwide.
The operations were disclosed in a statement on Sunday by NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
