In its relentless crackdown on illicit trafficking, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 38-year-old South African woman at the Abuja airport.
According to a statement issued on Sunday, July 12, by the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the 38-year-old suspect was apprehended on Monday, July 6, 2026. She was intercepted during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR 1433 from Doha to Abuja.
The suspect initially denied having any checked luggage. However, operatives quickly disproved her claim after matching the tags on the two bags containing the heroin to the claim stubs on her passport. She subsequently admitted ownership of the luggage, claiming she had forgotten she checked them in.
Investigations revealed she traveled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja. According to intelligence reports, Ms. Ann is a key operative in a transnational drug syndicate. She allegedly runs the network along the Cambodian-South African axis alongside her partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, who manages operations from Cambodia.
In a separate interdiction operation, the NDLEA apprehended a commercial motorcycle operator, 48-year-old Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, at the Terminal 2 arrival hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos. The suspect was intercepted following his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
A detailed search of his checked luggage led to the discovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed within his clothing. According to his statement, Onyechere disclosed that he had operated a commercial motorcycle at Lagos’ Oke-Afo axis for 15 years. He claimed he was recently recruited into drug trafficking by a friend residing in Uganda.
The suspect stated that he ingested the methamphetamine pellets in Uganda before flying to Madagascar to deliver the contraband. Upon being denied entry by Malagasy immigration authorities, his handler, Ozor Igo, rerouted his flight back to Nigeria, leading to his interception at the Lagos airport.
Unsure of the exact quantity he had swallowed, Onyechere was placed under medical observation by the agency. Over a three-day period ending July 1st, he excreted 13 additional pellets. Combined with the 87 wraps recovered from his backpack, the total seizure came to 100 wraps of methamphetamine with a gross weight of 1.715 kilograms.
At the nation’s premier seaport in Apapa, Lagos, a joint security team intercepted a massive container from Canada loaded with 8,287 nylon bags of Canadian Loud. The illicit consignment, weighing 4,143.5 kilograms, has an estimated street value exceeding ₦10.3 billion. The discovery was made on Friday, July 10, 2026, during a physical examination of the shipment by the NDLEA, Nigeria Customs Service, and sister security agencies.
The massive bust was the climax of weeks of relentless tracking. Operatives of the NDLEA’s Maritime Intelligence Unit, working in tight lockstep with the Apapa Strategic Command, had been monitoring the shipment ever since it departed from Montreal, Canada.
In another development, the NDLEA’s Directorate of Operation and General Investigation (DOGI) intercepted an export-bound shipment of Skunk in Lagos. Operatives discovered 2.5 kilograms of the cannabis strain hidden inside a gas compressor heading to Cyprus through a local courier firm.
Parallel to these enforcement operations, the agency’s commands across the country intensified their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy. Over the past week, sensitization activities were held across various sectors, including schools, religious centers, workplaces, and communities.
The advocacy drive featured WADA enlightenment lectures for students and faculty across several key institutions. These included Nnodo Secondary School in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State; Government Girls Secondary School in Sabon Gida, Sharada, Kano State; Royal Jesuit College in Agbado Ekiti; and Community Secondary School in Idofa, Ogun State.
Concurrently, leadership from the agency’s Zone 14 Command took the WADA advocacy campaign directly to the executive level. The team paid an official courtesy visit to the Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, at the Government House in Port Harcourt.
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (Rtd), highly commended the officers and men across the DOGI, MMIA, NAIA, MIU, and Apapa Commands for their exceptional work in executing these high-profile arrests and multi-billion naira seizures.
Marwa noted that their aggressive drug supply reduction efforts perfectly balance the agency’s community-driven War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities. He ultimately charged the operatives, along with commands nationwide, to remain vigilant and never rest on their past laurels in the ongoing fight against narcotics.
