The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has intercepted two trailers carrying 1,630,000 pills of tramadol 250mg in Lagos, in a fresh blow to a transnational syndicate smuggling drugs through Togo and Benin Republic into Nigeria. On 2 July 2026, NDLEA operatives tracked the first truck on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and recovered 853,000 pills hidden in a fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor, arresting driver Jabir Kabiru, 22. Two days later, a second truck was intercepted with 777,000 pills and driver Muhammed Nuhu, 22, arrested. The operation followed the seizure of 558,900 pills from a similar truck on 21 June, with investigations linking all three consignments to the same trafficking network.
At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, NDLEA also seized 4.70kg of Canadian Loud cannabis that arrived from Canada on 24 June and 3 July in cartons boldly marked ‘Odugwu’. Cargo agents Ali Rotimi Samson and Orimolade Oluwagbenga were arrested, and a third suspect, Edeh Onyeamachi Stanislus, was nabbed while attempting to collect the cargo. The owner, 44-year-old businesswoman Chioma Nneka Mokeme, was later arrested in Surulere on 7 July. In other interdictions, an 80-year-old man, Chika Ugwoji, was arrested in Ahoada, Rivers on 14 July with 800g of skunk. In Benin City, Edo, a couple, Christian Chukwuka, 32, and Nwanneka Christian, 33, were arrested with 219.5kg of cannabis and 192.67kg of Canadian Loud. A Chadian, Hajara Abdullahi, 38, and her accomplice Abdulkarim Jidda, 44, were also arrested in Lagos after 50,000 tramadol pills were intercepted in Kogi.
NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended the MMIA, Lagos, Rivers, Edo and Kogi Commands for the string of arrests and seizures, saying the operations are giving strong momentum to the country’s drug control efforts. He urged personnel to sustain vigilance. The Agency also continued its War Against Drug Abuse advocacy with sensitization lectures in secondary schools across Katsina, Enugu, Lagos, Rivers, Ekiti and Kano during the week.
