NDLEA Nabs Wanted Drug Kingpin, Recovers Cocaine, Loud

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) operatives have arrested a suspected drug kingpin, Okechukwu Izugha (a.k.a Okey Omeogo), in Lagos after 12 months of going into hiding.

He was nabbed on Wednesday, July 9, at his wife’s shop in Ijesha market.

Izugha came under NDLEA radar on August 7, 2024, after a 9kg cocaine was recovered from a suspect Obiora Joseph Agudosi at a motor park in Orile, Lagos, while he was going to deliver the consignment in the South-East.

The NDLEA said Izugha was identified as the owner of the seized drug.

NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said in the course of investigating the kingpin and his network, his wife Maureen Izugha was arrested with 500grams of cocaine at her beverages store in Ijesha market on January 21, 2025.

She was, thereafter, arraigned in court, convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment. Unknown to him that NDLEA was still on his trail, the wanted kingpin came out of his hiding and was promptly arrested last Wednesday.

The anti-narcotics agency also intercepted parcels of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis concealed in microwaves imported from Thailand and wraps of cocaine built into ladies’ lipsticks going to Guinea at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.

The Loud consignment was part of a consolidated cargo that came in two tranches on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Bangkok, Thailand through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Babafemi further said that based on credible intelligence, the cargo was subjected to thorough search during which 23 parcels of loud weighing 11.3kg concealed in new microwaves were recovered on Monday, July 7, 2025. A suspect, Ezenwegbu Chike, has been arrested in connection with the seizure.

Babafemi also stated that barely a week after a total of 420grams of cocaine factory-fitted in 84 pieces of female lipsticks heading to the UK were seized at a courier company in Lagos, NDLEA operatives at the export shed of the Lagos airport have intercepted another consignment of cocaine built into ladies’ lipsticks as part of a cargo containing hair attachments, face powder, and other items heading to Malabo, Guinea.

No less than 400grams of cocaine and phenacetine, a cutting agent, were recovered from the lipsticks when dismantled while a businessman at the Trade Fair Complex, Ojo area of Lagos, Ezeikwelume Prince Afam was arrested on Friday 11th July in connection with the seizure.