NDLEA Seizes 2.55m Opioid Pills Worth Over N3bn At Lagos Airport

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted 2.55 million pills of pharmaceutical opioids with a combined gross weight of 1,640.55 kilogrammes worth N3 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The seizure, described by the agency as one of its biggest opioid hauls this year, was made on Tuesday, September 22, during a joint examination of three monitored consignments at the airport’s import shed.

The consignments contained Tramaking 225mg, Tramaking 250mg and Royal Tapentadol 250mg and were imported from India and Bangladesh through Qatar Airways, RwandAir and Ethiopian Airlines.

The NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi said the value of the seized opioids was over N3 billion.

In a separate operation at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu, a 25-year-old newly married businessman, Lovely Chukwulobelu, was arrested for allegedly attempting to traffic cocaine to Portugal.

Chukwulobelu was intercepted at the airport’s departure hall on Thursday, September 24, while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Portugal through Addis Ababa.

According to the agency, he had ingested 72 wraps of cocaine and was subsequently placed under excretion observation, during which he expelled all the wraps.

The suspect reportedly told investigators that he had been involved in car decoration business at the Trade Fair Complex, Ojo, Lagos, before relocating to Portugal in May 2023.

He returned to Nigeria recently and got married on September 13, 2026, but allegedly resorted to drug trafficking to offset expenses incurred during his wedding.

The agency also reported the arrest of two suspected cannabis traffickers in Bauchi, where Umar Hamidu, 35, and Abdulkarim Salihu, 45, were intercepted along the Maiduguri bypass with 300 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 262.5kg.

The cannabis was allegedly concealed in a false compartment of a truck marked MUB757 YH.

In Edo State, NDLEA operatives, supported by soldiers, destroyed two cannabis farms at Eko Camp, Ilushi, on September 23. The farms had an estimated combined yield of 1,360.23kg of cannabis.

In Lagos, two women, Odumabo Kehinde, 36, and Obiekwe Chioma, 40, were arrested on Saturday, September 26, during a raid on Anifowoshe Street, Mushin, where 3.4kg of skunk was recovered.

The same day, NDLEA operatives intercepted a 58-year-old man, Ugwu Johnson, at Ebute-Ero Motor Park with 5.920kg of skunk, 2,400 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 8,400 tablets of nitrazepam and 40,000 pills of tramadol.