Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency intercepted two Europe-based Nigerian businessmen at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja after both suspects excreted 200 wraps of cocaine intended for Paris, France. The operation formed part of an extensive nationwide offensive executed by the anti-narcotics agency, leading to massive drug seizures and multiple arrests across Lagos, Oyo, Kano, Ondo, Edo, and Sokoto states.
According to official reports, the airport interception occurred on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, during the outward clearance procedures for an Air France flight. The suspects, identified as Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn, were subjected to body scans after raising suspicions, which revealed foreign objects concealed within their digestive tracts. Odife, a factory worker residing in France who had returned to Nigeria for a brief holiday on October 21, subsequently expelled 110 pellets weighing 1.901 kilograms. His travel companion, Blackborn, passed 90 pellets weighing 1.559 kilograms while under observation.
How did anti-narcotics operatives clamp down on drug networks across other states?
Beyond the federal capital, the agency recorded significant operational successes across several regional commands. In Lagos, officers intercepted two commercial vehicles conveying a combined 976 kilograms of cannabis sativa, locally known as skunk. A white Volkswagen LT 28 bus was intercepted along Kudirat Abiola Way in Ikeja with 537 kilograms, while a brown J5 bus yielded another 439 kilograms along the Gbagada-Oshodi Expressway.
In Oyo State, security personnel arrested two suspects—Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47—on Thursday, October 29, while loading 554 kilograms of skunk into a Volvo truck along Idere Road in Igboora. This raid followed an earlier operation targeting a fleeing drug kingpin known as Omo Oba, who evaded capture after officers intercepted 309.5 kilograms of Ghanaian Loud linked to him.
What other seizures were recorded in Northern and Southern regions?
In Kano State, raids within the Tsamiya area of Gezawa yielded 247,500 tablets of diazepam and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5. Days later, operatives apprehended Ziya'ulhaq Abdullahi and Garba Muhammed in the Dorayi neighborhood in possession of 19,250 tramadol pills. Additional operations led to the interception of live AK-47 ammunition along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, alongside substantial quantities of pentazocine injections and psychotropic substances in Zaria.
In Ondo State, four individuals were arrested inside the Ijare Forest with 180 kilograms of processed cannabis, while security forces in Edo State collaborated with military personnel to destroy a 1.646-hectare cannabis farm in Esan South-East Local Government Area, where a 50-year-old woman, Christiana Uboi, was taken into custody with 301 kilograms of processed weed. Meanwhile, Zone 7 Command operatives in Sokoto State arrested a 68-year-old man, Ibrahim Ayuba, with 236.6 kilograms of skunk.
Reacting to the nationwide clampdown, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Buba Marwa commended the participating state commands. Marwa warned that individuals residing abroad who engage in narcotics trafficking would find no safe haven, reiterating the agency's commitment to maintaining strict surveillance at all international borders.