NDLEA arrests two Europe-based Nigerians with 200 wraps of cocaine

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two Nigerians living in Europe after they allegedly swallowed 200 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.46kg while attempting to board a flight from Abuja to Paris, France.

The suspects, Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn, were arrested on Wednesday, 28 October, during passenger clearance for an Air France flight at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

The NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement on Sunday that a body scan revealed foreign objects in the stomachs of the two men, who were travelling on flight AF 832.

Mr Odife, who works in a factory in France, had arrived in Nigeria on 21 October for a short holiday. According to NDLEA, he admitted swallowing 110 wraps of cocaine, which he later excreted under observation. The wraps weighed 1.901 kg, the NDLEA said.

His co-traveller, Mr Blackborn, was also found to have swallowed cocaine. The NDLEA said he admitted ingesting 90 wraps, weighing 1.559kg, which he subsequently excreted.

The NDLEA stated that laboratory tests confirmed that all 200 wraps recovered from the men contained cocaine.

The arrest brings back to mind a similar incident in May 2024, when the agency arrested a 48-year-old businessman at the Abuja airport as he prepared to board a flight to Paris. A body scan revealed that he had swallowed 111 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.603 kilogrammes.

In January 2025, another businessman arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, underwent surgery after some of the 81 cocaine pellets he had swallowed became stuck in his stomach.

The latest arrests were part of a series of operations in which the NDLEA seized drugs and arrested suspects in several states.

In Lagos, operatives intercepted two vehicles on Sunday, 25 October, following intelligence about the movement of skunk, a potent strain of cannabis, from Lagos Island to the mainland.

They recovered 537kg of the substance from a white Volkswagen LT 28 bus along Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja. Another team intercepted a brown J5 bus along the Gbagada-Oshodi Expressway the same day and seized 439 kilogrammes.

In Oyo State, two men, Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47, were arrested on Thursday, 29 October, while allegedly loading 554 kilogrammes of skunk into a Volvo truck along Idere Road, Igboora.

The operation followed an earlier seizure of 309.5kg of cannabis, popularly known as Ghanaian Loud, allegedly linked to a drug dealer identified as Omo Oba, who escaped arrest on 25 October.

In Kano State, operatives raided a location in the Tsamiya area of Gezawa on Monday, 26 October, recovering 247,500 tablets of diazepam weighing 57.7 kilogrammes and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5 weighing 38.7kg.

Two days later, officers arrested Ziya’ulhaq Abdullahi, 35, and Garba Muhammed, 52, in the Dorayi area with 19,250 tablets of tramadol 225mg.

In Kaduna State, NDLEA operatives arrested a woman, Aisha Isah, with 266 rounds of live AK-47 ammunition at a toll gate along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.

Another suspect, Ifeanyi Egwolonwu, 68, was arrested at Gwargwaje, Zaria, along the Zaria-Kano Expressway, with 2,770 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 100 ampoules of diazepam injection, 11,000 tablets of diazepam and 4,500 tablets of Exol-5.

In a separate raid in the Tashan Banke area, officers arrested seven suspects, including Faisal Adamu, and recovered 178.85 kilogrammes of cannabis, alongside quantities of diazepam, tramadol, Exol-5 and pregabalin.

In Ondo State, operatives raided cannabis farms in Ijare Forest on Sunday, 25 October, arresting four suspects, including Bassey Okon, 24; Abraham Edet, 20; and Oto Udo, 24. They recovered 16 bags of processed cannabis weighing 180kg.

In Edo State, NDLEA operatives, working with soldiers, raided Eko Camp in Ilushi, Esan South-East Local Government Area, on Wednesday, 28 October. They destroyed a cannabis plantation covering 1.646 hectares, with an estimated yield of 4,115.53kg.

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A 50-year-old woman, Christiana Uboi, was arrested at the camp with 301kg of processed cannabis. Officers also recovered another 176 kilogrammes during the operation.

In Sokoto State, operatives of the NDLEA Zone 7 Command arrested a 68-year-old man, Ibrahim Ayuba, with 236.6 kilogrammes of skunk on Saturday, 31 October.

The agency said its commands also held drug awareness campaigns in schools, places of worship, workplaces and communities under its War Against Drug Abuse initiative.

Among the schools visited were Obawole Grammar School II in Ojodu, Lagos; Nsukka High School in Enugu State; Government Technical College, Dorayi Babba Rijiyar Zaki, in Kano State; and Ajagbe Comprehensive High School in Iperu, Ogun State.

The NDLEA chairman, Buba Marwa, commended the officers involved in the operations, particularly those who arrested the two cocaine couriers in Abuja.

He warned Nigerians living abroad against using their foreign residence as cover for drug trafficking, saying officers at the country’s entry and exit points remained vigilant.

Mr Marwa urged NDLEA personnel to sustain their operations against drug trafficking and continue public awareness campaigns to discourage drug use.

Between 2021 and 2025, the agency arrested 77,792 suspected drug offenders, secured 14,225 convictions and seized more than 14.8 million kilogrammes of illicit drugs, according to figures released by the NDLEA.