- Safiu Kehinde
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted shipment of cocaine, opioid, tramadol, and other illicit drugs concealed in prayer beads, packs of board games and female cloths.
The consignments which were bound for the United States, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Poland, and United Arab Emirates through different logistics firms were confiscated by operatives of the NDLEA.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on the agency’s official website on Sunday.
According to the statement, at least two suspects behind some of the aborted missions were arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos.
Among the arrested suspects was a 43-year-old businesswoman, Jakpor Egware May who was nabbed at the Gate ‘C’ departure hall of the Lagos airport while attempting to board an Air France flight to Italy on Saturday 8th March 2025.
When she was searched, 190 parcels of tramadol 225mg and another parcel of skunk, a strain of cannabis, were recovered from her luggage.
When interrogated, she claimed that she bought the drugs herself, with the intention to resell them in Italy.
Also arrested on Tuesday at the export shed of the Lagos airport, was a 60-year-old suspect, Yahaya Fatai Ayinla.
He was nabbed by NDLEA operatives while attempting to ship a cargo containing cloths used to conceal 400grams of skunk going to New York, United States of America.
At some logistics companies in Lagos, efforts by drug traffickers to export over two kilograms of Loud, Molly, Tramadol 365mg, 225mg hidden in Vitamin C bottles and female cloths to the US were frustrated by NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOG).
Other shipments of 230grams of cocaine concealed in prayer beads, soles of locally made shoes and packs of board games heading to Saudi Arabia, Poland and UAE were equally intercepted between Monday 10th and Wednesday 12th March.