NDLEA Intercepts N6.2bn ‘Jihadi Drug,’ Opioids At Lagos Airport

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have intercepted consignments of captagon, popularly known as the “Jihadi drug,” and millions of opioid tablets with a combined street value of more than N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The latest operations also led to the arrest of a suspected cross-border drug kingpin and the recovery of cocaine, heroin and other illicit substances in separate raids across the country.

According to a statement by the NDLEA director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, the captagon consignment was seized on Saturday, August 22, 2026, following the arrest of 49-year-old Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, who arrived in Lagos from Accra, Ghana, aboard an African World Airlines flight.

A search of his carton containing local bathing soap, popularly known as “Ghana Soap,” resulted in the discovery of 47,200 pills of captagon, an illicit amphetamine-based drug, concealed inside the blocks of soap.

The consignment was estimated to be worth more than N1.5 billion.

Captagon has acquired notoriety as the “Jihadi drug” because of its reported association with illicit financing and use among extremist groups in conflict zones.

The NDLEA said Nigeria first recorded an interception of the drug in September 2021, when a consignment was seized at the Apapa Port in Lagos.

Following his arrest, Aikins reportedly told investigators that he was expected to deliver the consignment to an unidentified destination in northern Nigeria.

In a separate operation at the Lagos airport, NDLEA operatives recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg, with a combined gross weight of 2,787.40kg and an estimated street value of more than N4.6 billion.

The drugs were recovered from four abandoned consignments at the import shed of MMIA after no one came forward to claim them.

The NDLEA said three of the consignments, containing a combined 900,000 tablets of Tramaking weighing 815.40kg, arrived on RwandAir flights from Bangladesh.

The fourth consignment contained 3,000,030 tablets of Tapentadol weighing 1,972kg and arrived aboard Qatar Airways from Amsterdam.

The consignments had been placed under surveillance after being abandoned. They were formally retrieved on Friday, August 28, following a joint examination involving NDLEA officers, the Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders.

Also in Lagos, a 31-year-old US returnee, Sowunmi David Oludotun, was arrested on August 19 at Ikate, Lekki, after he allegedly showed up to take delivery of 3.350kg of Loud, a potent synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United Kingdom.