NDLEA seizes cocaine and loud hidden in food flasks and snacks, arrests fashion designer, others
Twelve packages of cocaine hidden in the fake bottoms of food flasks were found by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) agents at the export shed of Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
In a statement released on Sunday, the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, revealed that the 2.80-kg illegal shipment was travelling by Virgin Atlantic to the United Kingdom.
The statement claims that two cargo agents, Ama Obinna Ufeim, 33, and Ogabi Monday Akorede, 39, were arrested when the drugs were discovered on April 9, 2026. Agoro Tajudeen Moninuola, a 52-year-old goods forwarder, was arrested as a consequence of additional investigations.
In a parallel operation on April 8 at the airport’s import shed, NDLEA agents found 2.90 kg of “loud,” a strong cannabis strain, concealed in snack packs aboard a Delta Airlines flight from the United States.
The consignee, 29-year-old fashion designer Saheed Adeshina Adegoke, was later arrested in Ogba, Lagos, while two cargo clearance agents, Animashaun Moshood Adetunji and Mercy Gabriel Oluwasegun, were first detained. On April 13, NDLEA agents on patrol along the Kaduna–Zaria route stopped a cement truck.
760 blocks and 33 jumbo bags of skunk, another cannabis variety, weighing 847 kg were found during a search. Umar Garba Haruna, 33, the driver, was taken into custody.
On April 16, a raid on a forest in the Uwet community in Akamkpa Local Government Area in Cross River State resulted in the arrest of Alice Sunday Udoh, a 53-year-old suspect. On six hectares of farmland, 15,000 kilos of cannabis were destroyed by workers, while another 119 kilograms were found.
In a same vein, 2,281.43 kg of cannabis were destroyed during a search on a farm in Edo State’s Ovia North East Local Government Area on April 14. Three suspects were taken into custody: Monday Ayan, 45; Christopher Egbe, 62; and Nweke Smart, 27. Sunday Odili, 49, and Ijenebe Joshua, 39, two further suspects, were captured in Delta State with 87.838 kg of skunk and seeds.
On April 15, while trafficking 11,900 tramadol capsules and 400 ampoules of phenobarbital injection to Ghana, NDLEA agents in Lagos detained two suspects, Chinedu Ogbekene and Zindozin Aloukou Bienvenu, along the Mile 2–Badagry Motorway. Officers raided a building in Lagos Island’s Petti neighbourhood that same day and found 95.8 kg of skunk.
Under its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) project, the government noted that its commands around the country also maintained advocacy campaigns that targeted communities, companies, schools, and places of worship.
Mohamed Buba Marwa, the chairman and chief executive officer of NDLEA, praised the efforts of officers in all impacted commands and urged them to keep up the momentum in both enforcement and public awareness.
