Capitalising on its intensified war against narcotics, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 30-year-old Italy-based businessman with 98 wraps of ingested cocaine. Joseph Cyril was intercepted by vigilant operatives at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu, just as he was about to board a flight to Italy via Addis Ababa and France.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi confirmed the development in a statement issued Sunday, August 9. He noted that Cyril was intercepted at the departure hall on Sunday, August 2, 2026, during the outward clearance of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET930. Under strict medical watch, the suspect eventually excreted 98 pellets of cocaine tipping the scales at 1.510 kilograms.
Deep-dive investigations show that Cyril returned to Nigeria from Italy on July 13, 2026. He loaded the narcotics into his system at an Awka hotel in Anambra State before heading to Enugu for his aborted flight back to Europe.
During questioning, Cyril confessed to the crime, stating he had operated a business in Italy for years before agreeing to traffic the cargo for a fee of “3,500 Euros in order to raise money to relocate to Germany where his family is based.”
The agency’s dragnet also extended to Lagos, where operatives at a local courier firm thwarted attempts by drug syndicates to export 1.2 kilograms of cocaine skillfully concealed inside 25 phone chargers heading to Saudi Arabia.
Interceptions spiked throughout the week: officers aborted a bid to send 500 grams of cocaine hidden in the false bottom of an Italy-bound backpack on Monday, August 3. By Tuesday, August 4, operatives hit another shipping hub to seize a 2.3kg inbound consignment of “Loud”—a high-potency synthetic strain of cannabis—shipped from the United States.
Extending their anti-narcotics net to the highways, NDLEA patrol officers along the Akure-Ilesha expressway halted a North-bound truck carrying 1,633 kilograms of skunk hidden inside “bags of rice shafts.” Transit handlers Buba Jamilu, 40, and Sanusi Ibrahim, 30, were arrested, complementing an independent forest sweep in Ita Ogbolu that recovered 147kg of skunk.
In Oyo State, a raid on a drug warehouse in Elebure village, Orire LGA, net 731.03 kilograms of illicit stock and the arrest of Felicia Thompson, 57, though her partner, “Thompson Vincent Nwaka is at large.
The enforcement wave continued in Edo State, where operatives and soldiers seized 65 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 604.5kg at Ewe Luleha, Owan West LGA. Meanwhile, tactical teams in Abia State shut down an active drug bunk, arresting Chibuike Charles, 31, at his “Samec by powerline base in Osisioma LGA” with 7kg of skunk.
In Badagry, Lagos, a high-value target fell as wanted dealer Adome Claude Sikuru was caught at the “fibre market drug jungle, Badagry” with 88.5kg of skunk after evading capture for three months. Rounding off the massive sweep, a 40ft container inspection at the Tincan Port Complex by a joint security team exposed 73 cartons containing 442 packets of “cookies and gummies infused with cannabis weighing 309.4kg,” resulting in the immediate arrest of Larry Nnaji.
Beyond tactical busts, various agency formations sustained their multi-sector “War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities” nationwide.
Key target zones included informative lectures for students and faculty at Islamic High School (Saki, Oyo State), Holy Ghost Academy (Nkpor, Anambra State), and “Madarasatul Hidayatul Aulad Islamiyya, Gaya, Kano.”
Bolstering academic partnerships, the agency’s Rivers State formation paid an important “WADA advocacy visit to the management of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Rivers state”.
Applauding the relentless drive of the frontline operatives, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), gave special recognition to the DOGI, AIIA, Ondo, Oyo, Edo, Abia, Seme, and Tincan Commands for executing these high-impact busts.
Applauding the relentless drive of the frontline operatives, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), gave special recognition to the DOGI, AIIA, Ondo, Oyo, Edo, Abia, Seme, and Tincan Commands for executing these high-impact busts.
Marwa heavily enjoined them and all active formations across the country to “continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the Agency.”
