The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) stopped 12 packages of cocaine that were hidden in the false bottoms of food flasks at the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos.
Femi Babafemi, the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, said this in a statement on Sunday. He said that the 2.80-kilogram illegal shipment was on its way to the UK on a Virgin Atlantic flight.
The statement says that the drugs were stopped on April 9, 2026, and two cargo agents, Ama Obinna Ufeim, 33, and Ogabi Monday Akorede, 39, were arrested. The alleged sender, a 52-year-old freight forwarder named Agoro Tajudeen Moninuola, was arrested after more investigations.
On April 8, NDLEA agents seized 2.90 kilograms of “loud,” a strong strain of cannabis, hidden in snack packs on a Delta Airlines flight from the United States. This was part of a related operation at the airport’s import shed.
Animashaun Moshood Adetunji and Mercy Gabriel Oluwasegun, two cargo clearing agents, were the first to be arrested. Later, in Ogba, Lagos, the consignee, Saheed Adeshina Adegoke, a 29-year-old fashion designer, was also arrested.
On April 13, NDLEA officers on patrol along the Kaduna–Zaria highway stopped a truck carrying cement.
A search found 760 blocks and 33 jumbo bags of skunk, which is another type of cannabis, weighing 847 kilograms. Umar Garba Haruna, 33, who was driving, was taken into custody.
On April 16, police raided a forest in the Uwet community of Akamkpa Local Government Area in Cross River State and arrested a 53-year-old suspect named Alice Sunday Udoh. Operatives destroyed 15,000 kilograms of cannabis grown on six hectares of farmland and found another 119 kilograms.
A cannabis farm in the Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State was also raided on April 14, and 2,281.43 kilograms of the drug were destroyed. Three people were arrested: Nweke Smart, 27; Christopher Egbe, 62; and Monday Ayan, 45.
In Delta State, police caught two other suspects, Sunday Odili, 49, and Ijenebe Joshua, 39, with 87.838 kilograms of skunk and seeds.
On April 15, NDLEA agents in Lagos arrested Chinedu Ogbekene and Zindozin Aloukou Bienvenu along the Mile 2–Badagry Expressway. They were on their way to Ghana with 11,900 capsules of tramadol and 400 ampoules of phenobarbital injection. On that same day, police broke into a building in the Petti area of Lagos Island and found 95.8 kilograms of skunk.
The agency said that its commands across the country also ran advocacy campaigns as part of its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) initiative. These campaigns were aimed at schools, religious centers, workplaces, and communities.
Mohamed Buba Marwa, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, praised the officers in the affected commands for their hard work and told them to keep up the good work in both enforcement and public awareness.
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