NDLEA recovers N2.1b Tapentadol, Intercepts Chinese grandma, with drug at Lagos airport
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. …Arrests building engineer, one other with opioids, cocaine at Abuja, Enugu airports
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has recovered Tapentadol, worth N2.1b from an Indian.
The NDLEA said it recovered the shipment of an illicit drug consignment at the import shed of the Lagos airport.
Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, in a statement on Sunday, stated that this followed close monitoring of the consignment by NDLEA operatives since its arrival from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight.
” The 29 large cartons containing One Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ten (1,825,710) tablets of Tapentadol 250mg, worth Two Billion, One Hundred and Ninety Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty-Two Thousand Naira (N2,190,852,000) were eventually handed over to the NDLEA by the Customs Service on Friday, 22nd May 2026″
The agency said it intercepted a 63-year-old Chinese grandma, Ting Hung Kiong, who was trying to smuggle a large consignment of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, into Nigeria.
The Chinese national who naturalised in Malaysia was arrested on Sunday, 17th May 2026, upon her arrival in Nigeria from Thailand via Dubai, UAE, aboard an Emirates Airline flight.
She was intercepted by NDLEA operatives attached to the Terminal 2 Arrival Hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
Investigation revealed that the suspect travelled from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria via the UAE with two large travel boxes containing the synthetic cannabis consignment weighing 31.0 kilograms.
During an interview, the 63-year-old suspect, who claims she works as a caregiver in Malaysia, stated that her daughter sponsored her trip from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria. She further disclosed that she spent two weeks in Thailand before she was handed the illicit consignment at the Thailand airport to deliver in Nigeria.
In another successful interdiction operation, NDLEA operatives at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, on Wednesday, 20th May, intercepted a suspect, Onyeka Valentine Emeka, during the inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sierra Leone via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When placed under observation, the suspect excreted a total of 185.36 grams of cocaine.
At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, a 29-year-old building engineer, Babatunde Prosper Afekhide was on Wednesday 21st May arrested by NDLEA operatives while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Abuja via Addis Ababa to Milan Malpensa, Italy.
A search conducted on his luggage led to the recovery of 10,280 pills of Tramaking 225mg; Tramadol 200mg and Tapentadol 250mg. The opioids were concealed using foil paper and hidden inside a carton, in a suitcase, obviously to evade detection.
Also at a courier company in Lagos, the NDLEA operatives intercepted 1,174 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) concealed in bicycle luggage carrier heading to Netherlands; 66 pills of tramadol 225mg hidden in soap container going to the United States and 18 tablets of tramadol 225mg concealed in body cream container heading to the United Kingdom.
In Edo state, NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence raided Igwe community in Owan East LGA where a total of 59 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 489kg and cannabis seeds weighing 9kg were recovered.
While a suspect Isah Sani, 30, was nabbed with 196,000 pills of exol-5 on Wednesday, 20th May along Zaria/Kano road, Kano state, NDLEA officers at Seme border, Badagry area of Lagos recovered 59kg skunk from a warehouse in Mowo, Badagry on Tuesday, 19th May.
Another operational success was recorded in Ekiti state where NDLEA operatives on Saturday 23rd May raided a warehouse located at N/56, Ikoyi community, Ikole-Ekiti and recovered 1,116 kilograms of skunk, while 54-year-old suspect Ogundana Adebayo Julius was arrested in connection with the seizure.
Buba Marwa, the NDLEA Chairman/ CEO, has charged the Agency’s operatives on the need to continue the war against drug traffickers with the same zeal they deployed in achieving the successes recorded so far.
He also charged the Commands and formations of the Agency across the country to strengthen their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities in schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others.
The WADA enlightenment lecture has continued across the country for schools, including students and staff of Command Day School, Mokola, Ibadan, Oyo state; Girls Secondary School, Amenyi, Anambra; Matazu Model Primary School, Matazu LGA, Katsina; C&S Primary School, Majidun, Ikorodu, Lagos; Alufo High School, Apugo, Enugu; Aramoko District Commercial Secondary School, Aramoko Ekiti; and Government Girls Secondary School, Kurna, Kano state, among others.
