The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says its operatives have smashed multiple drug trafficking rings across the country between Monday 21 and Saturday 26 July 2025, intercepting tonnes of cannabis and thousands of opioid pills.
Spokesman Femi Babafemi disclosed in a statement on Sunday, that on Wednesday, 23 July, officers stopped one Chidi Agbafo on the Epe–Ajah expressway, Lagos, with 21.7kg of “Colorado”—“some of which were shockingly packaged in moimoi cooking sachets”—and 3.8 litres of codeine syrup headed for Warri and Oghara, Delta State.
He added that at the Apapa seaport, Lagos, a joint examination with Customs and other security agencies on Friday, 25 July uncovered 101kg of Canadian Loud, factory-packed in 202 tins of imported food labelled ‘Bean Salad Mix’ and concealed in two Toyota Sienna buses inside a Canada-origin container.
“These disguises are getting more desperate, but our responses are getting sharper,” Babafemi said.
Babafemi further revealed that NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Friday, 25 July, arrested Liang Tak You, a Chinese businessman naturalised in Malaysia, who allegedly flew from Bangkok via Dubai on an Emirates flight with two suitcases containing 50 parcels of ‘Loud’ weighing 26.10kg.
“We tracked his movement from his port of departure and allowed him to pass all formalities before picking him up on his way out,” he stated.
According to Babafemi, in a separate operation, an 80-year-old grandmother, Mrs. Grace Ekpeme, was arrested at Edet-Nsa Street, Base Site, Calabar South, Cross River State, in the early hours of Saturday, 26 July, with over 3kg of skunk, after intelligence linked her to sustained drug dealing.
A nationwide sweep netted more suspects and seizures: 71,000 pills of tramadol, diazepam and exol-5 from Usman Musa on the Abuja–Kaduna highway on Wednesday, 23 July, leading to the arrest of his accomplice Bala Abdullahi in Borno on Friday, 25 July; three brothers—Nanna, Chizom and Maxwell Ozirinye—nabbed on Saturday, 26 July after NDLEA destroyed a 2,500kg skunk plantation on one hectare in Idoani, Ose LGA, Ondo State, and recovered 121.4kg of processed weed;
The agency also secured the arrest of Bright Sunday Okon, 26, in Benin City, Edo State, with multiple strains of cannabis and methamphetamine; 105.4kg of skunk recovered from an abandoned Honda car in Keffi, Nasarawa State; Bashir Abdullahi held in Minna, Niger State, with 6,400 pills of tramadol 225mg.
A notorious dealer Jamiu Omolaja detained in Ifo, Ogun State, after violent resistance, with 113kg of skunk seized; Adamu Adamu (aka Dankyado) caught on the Gombe–Bajoga road with 10,910 tramadol capsules; and in Kogi, skunk concealed in garri, dried scent leaves and other food items intercepted on Thursday, 24 July, triggering a follow-up arrest of 27-year-old Kindness Bala in Abuja, who planned to move the cargo to Katsina and later Qatar.
Kogi operatives also, on Saturday, 26 July, recovered 23,600 tramadol pills, 300 ampoules of pentazocine injection and 700g of skunk from a truck in Ayingba.
While enforcement intensified, the Agency’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy drive continued nationwide, with sensitisation lectures at Komu/Babaode High School, Itesiwaju LGA, Oyo State; Beacon Christian Academy, Ngodo, Afikpo LGA, Ebonyi; Government Day Secondary School, Araba, Illela, Sokoto; Government Junior College, Agege, Lagos; and advocacy visits to traditional rulers in Anambra, including Obi Gibson Nwosu (Eze Uzu II of Awka) and Igwe Robert Eze (Okofia VI of Ukpo), among others.
Commending the operatives, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), hailed the Lagos (MMIA and Apapa), Cross River, Edo, Ondo, Nasarawa, Borno, Niger, Ogun, Gombe, Kaduna and Kogi Commands for “a week of coordinated, intelligence-led operations that struck both the supply and demand sides of the illicit drug market.”
He added: “Our officers are pursuing a fair balance between drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction—and the results are evident in the arrests, seizures and sustained community outreach.”
