NDLEA Foils Drug Smuggling, Seizes Opioids, Meth At Lagos Airport

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja and a courier firm in Lagos have thwarted attempts by members of Drug Trafficking Organisations (DTOs) to move consignments of illicit substances especially methamphetamine and opioids concealed in walls of carton, winter jackets and body cream containers to countries in Europe.

Two of the consignments heading to Italy were to be moved through the Lagos airport where two suspects linked to the shipments were promptly arrested.

NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, said one of them, 37-year-old Friday Ehianuka was going to Rome, Italy on Friday, March 20, 2026 when he was intercepted while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight with 2,698 pills of tramadol 225mg concealed in containers of skin light body cream, all packed in the suspect’s luggage.

In his statement, Ehianuka who is a resident of Milan, confirmed that he was to be paid a negotiated fee in Euros if he had succeeded in trafficking the consignment to Italy.

In another drug bust, NDLEA operatives at the departure hall of the Lagos airport on Wednesday, March 18, intercepted a passenger, Christian Agbonhese, who was attempting to board a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Milan, Italy.

Upon a thorough search of his luggage, no fewer than 23,150 pills of tramadol 225mg; 4,000 tablets of tapentadol 250mg and 1,320 pills of tramadol 100mg, all concealed in two large winter jackets, bringing the total number of opioids recovered from him to 28,470 pills.

The 38-year-old Agbonhese is also a resident of Milan.

At a courier firm in Lagos, NDLEA officers on Monday, March 16, intercepted two parcels of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis weighing 1kg, hidden in a carton shipped to Lagos from the United States.

Also thwarted was an attempt to export 158 grams of methamphetamine concealed in the walls of a carton to New Zealand.

In Kano, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, March 18, arrested a suspect, Abdulkadir Mamuda, 35, with 102.5kg skunk at Dan-Tsalle, while another suspect Uche Johnson Festus, 47, was nabbed same day at Naibawa Gabas, with 95.5kg of same psychoactive substance.