By Steve Agbota
The global maritime domain is increasingly exploited as a transit route for illicit and hard drugs, posing major challenges for coastal nations like Nigeria.
With its vast maritime boundaries and strategic position along key West African shipping corridors, Nigeria remains particularly vulnerable to drug trafficking operations, especially through its porous sea routes and under-policed coastal infrastructure.
Nigeria serves as both a transit point and a growing market for illegal drugs, posing a multifaceted challenge to national security, public health and socio-economic stability.
Daily Sun learnt that substances often smuggled by merchants and traffickers through the seaports include cocaine, hashish, cannabis sativa, codeine syrup, heroin, opioids, colorado, tramadol, among others.
Amid escalating concerns over maritime drug trafficking, authorities have stepped up operations against smugglers exploiting vessels and seaports. Last week, the NDLEA announced it had confiscated more than 56,000 kg of narcotic and psychotropic substances at Nigeria’s seaports during the first quarter of 2025, resulting in the arrest of six suspects in a major interdiction effort.
The Director of Seaport Operations of the agency, Omolade Faboyede, confirmed that the interception took place across key seaport locations in the country between January and March 2025.
According to her, the total quantity of illicit substances intercepted during the period stood at 56,637.252 kilograms, comprising 64.252kg of Cannabis Indica (commonly referred to as Canadian Loud), 4,658kg of Cannabis Sativa, 50,845kg of Codeine-laced cough syrup, and 1,070kg of Tramadol.
In the absence of official valuation by the agency, estimates based on prevailing street prices in Nigeria put the combined value of the seized drugs at over N2.49 billion.
A breakdown of the estimated street values shows that: Cannabis Indica (a high-grade imported variant) is valued at about N3 million per kilogram, bringing its total to approximately N192.76 million.
Cannabis Sativa, the locally cultivated variant, fetches an average of N100,000 per kilogram, amounting to N465.8 million, while the Codeine-laced cough syrup, long associated with widespread substance abuse among young people, is estimated at N15,000 per litre, totalling N762.675 million.
Tramadol, a synthetic opioid often linked to dependency and addiction, carries an estimated value of N1 million per kilogram, translating to N1.07 billion in total street value.
Faboyede described the seizures as a testament to the agency’s intensified efforts to sanitise Nigeria’s seaports and disrupt the activities of drug trafficking syndicates exploiting maritime routes.
She credited the success to enhanced surveillance, improved intelligence-sharing, and robust inter-agency collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service and other port stakeholders.
“The figures from the first quarter clearly show that our ports are still being targeted by criminal elements seeking to move illicit drugs into the country or use our facilities as a transit hub. We are intensifying our efforts to ensure that this trend is not only curtailed but completely dismantled,” she said.
She further appealed to shipping companies, terminal operators, freight forwarders, and other maritime stakeholders to support NDLEA’s efforts by reporting suspicious cargoes and enhancing compliance with port security regulations.
However, observers within the maritime and security sectors have raised genuine concerns that the volume and value of the drugs intercepted suggest the involvement of well-organised criminal cartels leveraging Nigeria’s strategic port locations for transnational smuggling operations.
They also stress the need for the deployment of modern scanning technologies, improved container profiling and stricter enforcement of port access controls.
Security analysts warn that without urgent and consistent action, Nigeria’s seaports may continue to serve as conduits for drug inflow, with grave implications for public health, national security, and the country’s international reputation.
Speaking with Daily Sun, Gbenga Oyewole, a seasoned maritime security expert and former Senior Special Assistant on Maritime Services to ex-President Goodluck, said his worry is only that there is poor compliance with the regulations, and people who are supposed to monitor those domains are not there.
“Way back in 2011, I told President Jonathan that we don’t process cocaine in Nigeria, and we don’t grow the plants here. To further exacerbate that, we don’t catch people bringing in, but we catch people at the airport trying to go out.
“I’m talking of that time, I said these things came in through the sea. And how does it come in through the sea? The modern vessels that do not get to the port, that stay on the high seas, bring in these things and even weapons. Small boats will approach them and take these substances from them and disappear into the cities, through the creeks.
“He said, Leke, what you have said is reasonable. He said, go and watch out. Two weeks later, we caught the first vessel that came in with 450 kilograms of cocaine, which is almost like nine bags of cement. That is an extreme effrontery and audacity for people to bring such substances as close as to the ports. A lot of them, the smart ones, won’t even get to the ports. They stay on the high seas there. Small boats will uptake it,” he explained.
He stated that these boats often vanish into the creeks, making their way into towns, and emphasized that the growing audacity of individuals attempting to import and clear illicit goods at the ports reflects a blatant disregard for Nigeria’s sovereignty. He noted that this issue has persisted for years, urging the government and stakeholders to collaborate on effective solutions. He further stressed that addressing this problem would ensure that the Customs Service is fully empowered to carry out its mandate, including thorough inspections of vessels visiting the ports.
“When a vessel is coming to any country, it doesn’t matter where you are staying, even if you can’t get to the port, even if you are on the high seas, the Customs rumminage, check everywhere in the vessel properly, all compartments, to be sure that there are no illicit substances in the vessel.
“But the first punch that hit came when the Customs were stopped from taking money on petroleum products. Customs also lost interest in rummaging any ship carrying petroleum products because they know they are not going to get any money there.
“So they don’t go up there to the high seas to see what you have on board, what you have come into the country with. So, people can use especially tankers to do that, but people that now use general cargo ships or hide things in spare parts, and claim them to go and upload them in towns and cities, those are the ones that think there is still some level of regulation in the country which they can beat,” he said.
He said the people who think they should not go that far stay on the high seas, upload what they have to upload, and go into the towns. He pointed out that certain things must be done to ensure that Customs continue to do what it needs to do on the high seas and at the ports.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kayode Farinto, a former Acting National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), said he predicted that the importation of illicit drugs would be on the increase, unless the government and stakeholders do the needful.
“And what are the needful things that I suggested? I said we should take this war to the source countries, countries like Canada. In Canada, loud and psychotropic substances are allowed, and that is why they don’t monitor them when they’re being exported.
“All we would have done was to sign an MOU with Canada and look for an agency that will now be in charge of re-examining a container, I mean a container that is made for Nigeria, maybe at a very cheap price of maybe an additional $100 on each examination of a container. I said it, but nobody cares to listen to it.
He lamented how some people look for money, which is very unfortunate, and that is why it must be nipped in the bud.
He added that the consumers of these psychotropic substances are nothing more than the nation’s youth, adding that 70 per cent of it is consumed by the youth.
“So I’m more than worried. I predicted two years ago, if it was not nipped in the bud, that this would be on the increase. So I’m not surprised that it is on the increase. And above all, I also suggested to NDLEA that among stakeholders, make ambassadors. Ambassadors not with an ordinary mouth, not with a label. Ambassadors who attract money. If you see something, you say something. When you are saying something, what does it cost? Just like going back to the whistleblower of that time, that is what NDLEA should do now.
“They can’t do it alone, and the rate is increasing. And unfortunately, they can’t be nipped in the bud, except that something is done urgently. So it depends on the government, the readiness and the part of the government to do that, because that is the only solution for now,” he suggested.
He said there should be enough sensitisation and the need to educate the populace that this drug that is being imported, the final consumer is the children, saying it will increase the vices in society.