The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has intercepted over N3 billion worth of opioids at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, and arrested cross-border traffickers and other suspects in Lagos, Oyo, Edo and Bauchi states.
NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, said operatives at the import shed of the MMIA, Ikeja, on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, uncovered one of the year’s biggest opioid hauls during a joint examination of three consignments.
The seizure comprised 2,550,000 pills of Tramaking 225mg, Tramaking 250mg and Royal Tapentadol 250mg, with a combined gross weight of 1,640.55 kilograms. The consignments were imported from India and Bangladesh via Qatar Airways, RwandAir and Ethiopian Airlines.
In Bauchi, operatives arrested two suspects, Umar Hamidu, 35, and Abdulkarim Salihu, 45, along the Maiduguri bypass with 300 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 262.5kg, concealed in the false bottom of a truck marked MUB757 YH.
The Agency also destroyed two cannabis farms with an estimated yield of 1,360.23kg at Eko Camp, Ilushi, Edo State, on Wednesday, September 23, in an operation supported by soldiers.
In Lagos, two female suspects, Odumabo Kehinde, 36, and Obiekwe Chioma, 40, were arrested on Saturday, September 26, when NDLEA raided Anifowoshe Street in Mushin and recovered 3.4kg of skunk from them. On the same day in Lagos, officers intercepted a 58-year-old man, Ugwu Johnson, at Ebute-Ero motor park with 5.920kg skunk, 2,400 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 8,400 tablets of nitrazepam and 40,000 pills of tramadol.
Two Togolese nationals, Yinusa Abdulsamad, 35, and Fatai Baba, 33, were nabbed on Saturday at Iganna-Ilero road, Iganna, Oyo State with 305.6kg of skunk concealed in two pick-up vans used for cross-border trafficking of Ghana-sourced cannabis into Nigeria through the Oyo axis.
At the Seme border in Badagry, five suspects were arrested with 420 cartons of nitrous oxide, popularly known as laughing gas, weighing 1,688.4kg, along with two vehicles used to convey the exhibit into Lagos. They are Kingsley John, 40; John Chibuike Okeke, 44; Lamidi Ismaila, 40; Babatunde Samuel, 42; and Afeesu Idowu, 47.
Meanwhile, NDLEA Commands across the country sustained War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization lectures in schools, worship centres and communities.
Chairman of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), commended officers of the MMIA, Lagos, Oyo, Edo, Seme and Bauchi Commands for the successful operations.