NDLEA Uncovers Cocaine Concealed In Heads Of Dry Stock Fish

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has intercepted a large consignment of cocaine concealed in heads of imported dry stock fish.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency also arrested a key member of the syndicate involved in shipping the illicit substance across the world especially to India.

NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, said the smashing of the drug syndicate followed intelligence on their trans-border criminal activities, which led to a well-coordinated sting operation by operatives of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Strategic Command of the Agency at the Ojo area of Lagos on Thursday, March 19, 2026.

He explained that in the course of the operation, three jumbo size bags were found in possession of the kingpin, a 36-year-old Akputa Dickson Ejike.

A search of the bags led to the recovery of 237 wraps of cocaine buried in the heads of imported dry stock fish locally known as “Okporoko.”

The cocaine pellets have a gross weight of 5.80 kilograms. The consignment was intended for export to Delhi, India.

In another operation in Lagos, NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) on Wednesday, March 25, intercepted two illicit consignments heading to the United Kingdom at a courier company.

In one of the shipments that originated from Cotonou, Benin Republic, 1.9 kilograms of methamphetamine were found concealed in automobile filters while the second parcel contains 40 ampoules of Morphine Sulphate and nine ampoules of Fentanyl.

Also, in yet another major interdiction operation, operatives of a Special Operations Unit of the Agency on Thursday, March 26, raided the house of a female head of a notorious drug syndicate, 46-year-old Omolade Abigail Jolayemi at 13 Carter street, Yaba, Lagos where they arrested her and her sales girl, Sarah Zainab Agbabiaka, 31.

No fewer than 135 blocks of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis weighing 76.30kg, were recovered from them.

The NDLEA explained that Omolade popularly known as Iya Ghana, trades in local fabric on the surface but beneath she runs a drug distribution network between Nigeria and Ghana.