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Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 25-year-old newlywed businessman, Lovely Chukwulobelu, at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, for attempting to traffic 72 wraps of cocaine he had swallowed, en route to Portugal where he resides.
The suspect was intercepted at the departure hall on Thursday, September 25, 2026, while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Lisbon via Addis Ababa.
Placed under excretion observation, he egested a total of 72 wraps of the Class A substance.
Chukwulobelu told operatives he ran a car decoration business at the Trade Fair Complex in Ojo, Lagos, before relocating to Portugal in May 2023.
He said he returned to Nigeria to marry on September 13, 2026, and turned to drug trafficking to offset wedding expenses.
At the import shed of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, September 22, uncovered one of the year’s largest opioid seizures during a joint examination of three monitored consignments.
The haul comprised 2,550,000 pills of Tramaking 225mg, Tramaking 250mg and Royal Tapentadol 250mg, with a combined gross weight of 1,640.55kg. The consignments had been imported from India and Bangladesh via Qatar Airways, RwandAir and Ethiopian Airlines.
In Bauchi, operatives arrested Umar Hamidu, 35, and Abdulkarim Salihu, 45, along the Maiduguri bypass with 300 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 262.5kg, concealed in the false bottom of a truck.
Separately, NDLEA officers backed by soldiers destroyed two cannabis farms with a combined estimated yield of 1,360.23kg at Eko Camp, Ilushi, Edo State, on Wednesday, September 23.
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In Lagos, two women, Odumabo Kehinde, 36, and Obiekwe Chioma, 40, were arrested on Saturday, September 26, during a raid on Anifowoshe Street, Mushin, where 3.4kg of skunk was recovered.
In a separate operation the same day, a 58-year-old man, Ugwu Johnson, was intercepted at Ebute-Ero motor park with 5.92kg of skunk, 2,400 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 8,400 tablets of nitrazepam and 40,000 tramadol pills.
Two Togolese nationals, Yinusa Abdulsamad, 35, and Fatai Baba, 33, were arrested on the Iganna-Ilero road in Oyo State with 305.6kg of skunk concealed in two pickup vans, part of a cross-border racket moving Ghanaian-sourced cannabis into Nigeria through the Oyo axis.
At the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, five suspects: Kingsley John, 40; John Chibuike Okeke, 44; Lamidi Ismaila, 40; Babatunde Samuel, 42; and Afeesu Idowu, 47, were arrested with 420 cartons of nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”) weighing 1,688.4kg, along with two vehicles used to convey the exhibits into Lagos.
Alongside the enforcement operations, NDLEA commands nationwide continued War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities.
These included lectures at Community High School, Saki, Oyo State; Auchi College, Edo State; Alkali Modibbo Islamic Centre, Dukku, Gombe State; and Junior Arabic Secondary School, Kahu, Kibiya LGA, Kano State.
The Delta Ports Command also paid a WADA advocacy visit to the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatshe III.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (rtd), commended officers of the MMIA, AIIA, Lagos, Oyo, Edo, Seme and Bauchi commands for the operations, and urged continued commitment to the agency’s balanced approach to drug control.
