The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has seized captagon and millions of opioid pills worth more than N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, while arresting a cross-border drug kingpin and other suspects.
The NDLEA seized 47,200 captagon pills worth over N1.5 billion at the Lagos airport on Saturday, 22nd August 2026. Operatives arrested 49-year-old Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, a cross-border kingpin who arrived from Accra, Ghana, aboard an African World Airlines flight.
A search of his carton of local bathing soap, popularly called “Ghana Soap,” exposed the drugs hidden inside the soap blocks. Aikins told operatives he planned to deliver the consignment in the North.
Captagon, often called the “Jihadi drug” because of its reported use in funding extremist activities in conflict zones, first appeared in an NDLEA seizure in Nigeria in September 2021 at the Apapa port in Lagos.
NDLEA operatives, however, recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg at the MMIA import shed. The drugs had a combined gross weight of 2,787.40 kilograms and a street value of more than N4.6 billion.
Three abandoned consignments contained 900,000 Tramaking tablets weighing 815.40kg. RwandAir flights from Bangladesh carried the consignments. A fourth consignment contained 3,000,030 Tapentadol tablets weighing 1,972kg and arrived on Qatar Airways from Amsterdam.
Also, NDLEA officers, Customs and other stakeholders placed the consignments under close watch after no one came to claim them. They formally retrieved the shipments after a joint examination on Friday, 28th August.
Similarly, NDLEA operatives arrested 31-year-old US-returnee Sowunmi David Oludotun in the Ikate area of Lekki on 19th August. He had arrived to collect 3.350 kilograms of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United Kingdom.
In Rivers State, NDLEA operatives raided the notorious Abuja Down/Up area of Port Harcourt and recovered a fireproof iron safe. When officers opened the safe with a welding machine on Tuesday, 25th August, they found 237 grams of Colorado, 316 grams of cocaine and 10 grams of heroin.
NDLEA officers arrested Oyedele Daniel, 42; Taye Saliu, 36; and Kehinde Saliu, 36, on Friday, 28th August, along the Ipele-Idoani road in Ondo State.The suspects had 728kg of skunk in their truck marked KRE 120 XB.
Two other suspects, Uche Joseph, 35, and Godwin Umeh, 21, were also arrested at Aponmu forest on Wednesday, 26th August. Officers recovered 341kg of the same substance from them.
In Delta State, NDLEA officers recovered more than 176,000 pills of assorted opioids, including tramadol and molly, in two operations conducted between Wednesday, 26th August, and Friday, 28th August.
NDLEA commands across the country also continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation programmes in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities.
The activities included lectures at Markaz Littahfizul Quran Wal Islamiyyat, Dadin Kowa, Gombe; Zangina Islamiyyah Alasawa Kurna, Ungogo LGA, Kano; and an adolescent lifestyle programme organised by NNPCL in Benin City, Edo State.
The Ondo State Command visited Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for WADA advocacy, while the Taraba State Command paid a similar visit to Governor Agbu Kefas.
NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), praised officers of the MMIA, Ondo and Delta Commands for the operations.
Marwa urged them and their colleagues across the country to maintain the Agency’s balanced approach to drug control.
He also directed them to sustain the pressure on traffickers who use everyday household items, including soap, to conceal illicit drugs.
External links
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)
Federal Ministry of Justice Nigeria
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
