In a series of high-stakes border and maritime crackdowns, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have smashed multiple syndicates nationwide. The sweeping operations yielded a staggering N4.4 billion haul of ‘Loud’ (a potent synthetic cannabis) at Lagos ports, the interception of cocaine hidden inside cassava flour (fufu), and the shocking arrest of a 101-year-old great-grandmother.
According to a statement released on Sunday, August 23, 2026, by NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, agency operatives intercepted the centenarian, Esther Ogunmabo, on Saturday, August 15, 2026, in Ilisan, Ogun State. She was caught in possession of retail sachets of skunk, a highly potent cannabis strain, weighing 90 grams, which she actively peddled to locals.
During interrogation, the centenarian confessed that she turned to the illicit drug trade after a devastating fire razed her provisions shop. She further revealed that one of her daughters, based in Lagos, coordinates the supply of the contraband every four days, which she then distributes in smaller quantities.
Reacting to the development, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), directed that the centenarian be granted bail and placed on counseling due to her advanced age. Her daughter, who allegedly orchestrated the supply chain, has been taken into custody.
In a separate high-seas interception on Friday, August 21, 2026, NDLEA operatives in Akwa Ibom State acted on credible intelligence to halt a wooden boat trafficking illicit drugs to fishing settlements in the Republic of Cameroon.
The vessel, bound for the Ine Isu, Ine Mbah, and Ine Ikot Itie Udung fishing ports in Cameroon, was intercepted with three suspects on board.
The suspects include Etima Effiong Eekpo, 29, caught with 1.120 kg of skunk; Otobong Eyoh Etukudoh, 33, found with 42.060 kg of skunk; and Kingsley Effiong John, 27, who had 20 grams of cocaine cleverly concealed inside a large wrap of edible cassava flour (fufu), alongside 435 grams of skunk. A cumulative total of 42.622 kg of narcotics was recovered from the trio.
Expanding its crackdown to the maritime frontier, the agency recorded its first-ever seizure of illicit drugs shipped from Thailand through the sea corridor. Operatives intercepted two containers of Cannabis Indica, popularly known as ‘Loud’, at the Apapa and Lekki ports, boasting a combined street value of over N4.4 billion.
Both containers were loaded at the Port of Laem Chabang, Thailand, exposing an emerging trafficking route exploited by transnational syndicates smuggling synthetic cannabis into Nigeria.
Similarly, at the Apapa Port, a joint examination conducted on Friday, August 21, 2026, by the NDLEA, Nigeria Customs Service, and other security agencies, exposed a container deceptively declared as carrying dried fish, rice, vehicle spare parts, turmeric soap, and inverter batteries. Instead, inspectors uncovered 1,090.5 kg of Thai Loud packed across 54 cartons, containing ,2181 individual 500-gram sachets.
Simultaneously, at the Lekki Deep Sea Port, a flagged container placed on the agency’s watchlist and tracked by its Marine Special Operations Unit was jointly examined on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. Out of seven pallets wrapped in black nylon, four were stuffed with 96 cartons containing 400 parcels of Thai Loud, weighing a total of 400 kg. The remaining three pallets were stacked with 798 reams of A4 paper used to camouflage the contraband.
Meanwhile, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, NDLEA operatives on Saturday, August 22, 2026, intercepted three waybill packages concealing 24,410 Tramadol capsules aboard a commercial Hummer bus traveling from Enugu to Zuba. A swift follow-up operation tracked in Niger State led to the arrest of the consignment’s owner, 28-year-old Sunday Eze, in Kontagora, who was subsequently transferred to Abuja for prosecution.
Deepening the crackdown in Ondo State, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, raided a massive cannabis plantation at Ijare Forest in Ifedore Local Government Area. The raid followed the August 16 arrest of three suspected cultivators at the site, resulting in the destruction of 10,000 kg of skunk grown across four hectares of land. On the same day, a separate operation at Ita-Ogbolu, Akure North LGA, yielded 210 kg of skunk and a Toyota Camry (Reg No: AGL 223 JH) belonging to a fleeing suspect, Sylvester Dibiagu Anthony, who remains at large.
Meanwhile, in Kwara State, operatives patrolling the Ogbomosho-Ilorin Expressway intercepted an unregistered Toyota Starlet on Friday, August 21, 2026. A thorough search exposed 1.325 kg of methamphetamine wrapped in black nylon alongside quantities of cannabis sativa. A 22-year-old suspect, Muhammadu Usman, was arrested at the scene.
In Oyo State, a 65-year-old woman, Adebayo Kaosarat, was nabbed on the same day at Akobo-Ojuirin, Ibadan, with a lethal cocktail of narcotics totaling 4.68 kg. The haul comprised 1.795 kg of Scottish Loud, 1.66 kg of Tramadol, 600g of Codeine syrup, 125g of Diazepam, and 50g of Flunitrazepam.
The nationwide sweeps also hit Kano State on Monday, August 17, 2026, where a raid along Hadeija Road led to the arrest of Chibuzor Madueke, 31, with 98 blocks of skunk weighing 73.3 kg. Down at the Seme border corridor in Lagos, operatives raided the Ashipa area to arrest three members of the same family—Nasiru Tijjani, 52; Moshood Tijjani, 27; and Salami Tijjani, 27—with 48 kg of skunk.
While in Abia State, officers stormed the Umuobia Olokoro residence of 36-year-old Ikechukwu Anthony Iwuno in Umuahia South LGA on Thursday, August 20, 2026, recovering 14.4 kg of Loud, 2.3 kg of Colorado, 386g of Tramadol, and 134g of Rohypnol.
Simultaneously, the agency sustained its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization campaign across schools, worship centers, workplaces, and local communities. Key advocacy lectures over the past week reached the Umar Bn Khattab College for Islamic Studies in Ungogo, Kano; Markaz Al-Furqan Centre in Kishi, Oyo State; the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Birnin Kebbi; and the Mu’assasah Tahfizul Qur’an Islamiya School in Ibi, Taraba State.
Advocacy lines also extended to the Scout Association of Nigeria at their National Youth Camp in Benin City, while the Idiroko Special Area Command paid a WADA advocacy visit to the Chairman of Ipokia LGA in Ogun State, Hon. Johnson Avoseh
Commending the officers across the Ogun, Apapa, Lekki, Seme, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Oyo, Kwara, Kano, Abia, and FCT commands for these massive victories, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), charged them to maintain this balanced, high-intensity strategy in the nation’s ongoing drug control war.
