Ongoing efforts to dismantle a transnational drug trafficking syndicate smuggling tramadol from Togo through Benin Republic into Nigeria have yielded another success with the interception of two long trailers used to move 1,630,000 pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in fabricated compartments of the trucks across multiple borders into Lagos, just as a 80-year-old grandpa was nabbed.
The intelligence-led interdiction operation came barely a week after NDLEA operatives recovered 558,900 pills of the same psychoactive substance from the false bottom compartment of a truck that came into Lagos through the Togo-Benin Republic route.
One of the two trucks already heading to Kano State was tracked and located on July 2, 2026 along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
NDLEA officers recovered 853,000 pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in a fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor of the trailer and arrested the 22-year-old driver, Jabir Kabiru.
Two days later, July 4, 2026, NDLEA operatives acting on processed intelligence successfully tracked and recovered the second trailer from the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway while heading to Kano.
A total of 777,000 pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in a fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor of the truck were evacuated and the 22-year-old driver, Muhammed Nuhu, arrested.
Investigations revealed that all three trucks and consignments intercepted on June 21, July 2, and July 4, 2026 belong to the same transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria axis.
Two consignments of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, with a combined weight of 4.70 kilograms have been intercepted at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja, Lagos.
The cargoes, which arrived at the Lagos airport from Canada in cartons with Odugwu boldly written on them, came aboard a British Airways flight and an Ethiopian Airlines flight on June 34 and July 3 respectively.
Two cargo agents: Ali Rotimi Samson and Orimolade Oluwagbenga, linked to the shipments were initially arrested following which another suspect, Edeh Onyeamachi Stanislus, who showed up to take delivery of the consignments from a logistics company, was also nabbed.
A 44-year-old businesswoman, Chioma Nneka Mokeme, who is the actual owner of the consignments, was eventually arrested on July 7, 2026, in collaboration with the Area C Command of the Nigeria Police, Surulere, Lagos.
Mokeme, who claimed she is into printing business, said her friend, Agbons Collins, who lives in Canada, introduced her into the criminal trade.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives in Rivers State have arrested an 80-year-old grandpa, Chika Ugwoji, for dealing in illicit substances.
The Octogenarian was found in possession of 800 grams of skunk at the time of his arrest at Ahoada on July 14.
In Edo State, a couple: Christian Chukwuka, 32, and Nwanneka Christian, 33, were on July 13 arrested following a raid of their illicit drug warehouse along Sapele Road, Benin City, where 22 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5kg and compressed blocks of Canadian Loud with a gross weight of 192.67kg were seized.
A Chadian woman, Hajara Abdullahi, 38, and her Nigerian accomplice, Abdulkarim Jidda, 44, were nabbed in Lagos following the seizure of 50,000 pills of tramadol 225mg intercepted in Kogi State on July 12.
The consignment was eventually linked to the two suspects who were traced to Lagos and arrested in the Apapa area of the state.
The War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) social advocacy activities by NDLEA Commands equally continued across the country in the past week.
Some of them included WADA sensitisation lectures delivered to students and staff of Government Day Junior Secondary School, Bakori, Katsina State; Colliery Technical School, Ngwo, Enugu State; Starlight College, Iganmu Ijora, Lagos State; Community Secondary School, Kono, Rivers State; Odoro High School, Ikole Ekiti, Ekiti State; and Government Junior Secondary School, Gabasawa, Kano State.
While commending the officers and men of MMIA, Lagos, Rivers, Edo, and Kogi Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), noted that their efforts and those of their compatriots across the country have contributed in no small measure to ongoing drug control efforts across the country.
Marwa charged them to remain vigilant at all times.
