Agency Nabs Female Drug Kingpin In Lagos With N5bn Cocaine

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a suspected leader of a drug syndicate, Shodunke Yetunde Simbiat, with 23.50 kilogrammes of the class A drug, worth over N5 billion in street value, recovered from her children’s room.

Simbiat, who had been underground since May 2024, was arrested at her Lagos home after she was tracked to her residence at 31, Onasanya Street, Surulere, Lagos, on Tuesday, December 9, 2025.
NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said “a thorough search of her home led to the discovery of blocks of cocaine weighing 23.50 kilogrammes concealed in a black suitcase recovered from the 39-year-old woman’s children’s room.

“She admitted ownership of the drug consignment worth over N5 billion in street value,” Babafemi said.
Simbiat is linked to a cocaine trafficking cartel led by a couple: Bolanle Lookman Dauda and Olayinka Toheebat Dauda, whose cartel was smashed in Lagos and Ogun State by operatives of the NDLEA, with multi-billion-naira worth of the illicit drug recovered from them.

The kingpin, Lookman, and his wife, Toheebat, were arrested on Saturday, May 25, 2024, by operatives of a special operations unit of NDLEA at Ibiye on Lagos-Badagry Expressway, while attempting to cross the land border to deliver the consignment in Ghana.

At the point of their arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5 kilogrammes were found on them. A swift follow-up operation in their residence at Plot 24/25 OPIC extension, Petedo Road, Agbara, Ogun State, led to the recovery of an additional eight blocks of the same drug weighing 10kg, bringing the total weight of the consignment seized from the couple to 57.5 kilogrammes.

Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives attached to terminal II departure hall of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, on Thursday, December 18, intercepted a 36-year-old businessman Nwanwene Robinson Destiny with a total of 1,020 pills of tramadol 225mg and tapentadol 200mg concealed in his luggage while attempting to board a Royal Air-Maroc flight to Milan, Italy where he is based.

He claimed the successful trafficking of the opioids to Italy would have fetched him €200.00 from the person he was to deliver them to.