Get Guardian on GoogleTwo Europe-based Nigerian businessmen have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, after attempting to smuggle 200 wraps of cocaine to Paris, France, in their stomachs.
The suspects, Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn, were intercepted on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, during the outward clearance of Air France flight AF 832 from Abuja to Paris.
They subsequently excreted 200 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.460 kilogrammes after body scans confirmed that they had ingested illicit drugs.
Odife, who claimed to live in France and work in a factory, arrived in Nigeria on October 21 for a short holiday. He was arrested while attempting to return to France after a body scan revealed foreign objects in his stomach.
During interrogation, he admitted to ingesting 110 pellets of cocaine. He was placed under observation and subsequently excreted all 110 wraps, weighing 1.901 kilogrammes.
His co-traveller, Blackborn, was also arrested at the airport’s departure hall after his body scan returned a positive result.
He confessed to swallowing 90 pellets of cocaine and later excreted all of them. The wraps tested positive for cocaine and weighed 1.559 kilogrammes.
In another operation, NDLEA operatives arrested a woman, Aisha Isah, with 266 rounds of live AK-47 ammunition during a patrol along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.
The agency also arrested a 68-year-old man, Ifeanyi Egwolonwu, at Gwargwaje, Zaria, along the Zaria-Kano Expressway, with 2,770 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 100 ampoules of diazepam injection, 11,000 diazepam tablets and 4,500 Exol-5 tablets.
In Lagos, operatives acting on intelligence about the movement of skunk, a potent strain of cannabis, from the Island to the Mainland intercepted a white Volkswagen LT 28 bus along Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja, on Sunday, October 25, recovering 537 kilogrammes of the substance.
On the same day, another team intercepted a brown J5 bus along the Gbagada-Oshodi Expressway and seized an additional 439 kilogrammes of skunk.
In Oyo State, two suspects, Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47, were arrested on Thursday, October 29, while allegedly loading 554 kilogrammes of skunk into a Volvo truck along Idere Road, Igboora.
The operation was a follow-up to an earlier raid targeting a notorious drug dealer identified as ‘Omo Oba’, who escaped arrest on October 25 when operatives seized 309.5 kilogrammes of a potent cannabis strain known as Ghanaian Loud linked to him.
In Kano State, NDLEA operatives raided a location in the Tsamiya area of Gezawa on Monday, October 26, recovering 247,500 tablets of diazepam weighing 57.7 kilogrammes and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5 weighing 38.7 kilogrammes.
Two days later, operatives raided Dorayi and arrested Ziya’ulhaq Abdullahi, 35, and Garba Muhammed, 52, with 19,250 tablets of tramadol 225mg weighing 13.6 kilogrammes.
In another operation at Tashan Banke, seven suspects, including Faisal Adamu, were arrested, while 178.85 kilogrammes of cannabis and quantities of diazepam, tramadol, Exol-5 and pregabalin were recovered.
In Ondo State, four suspects, including Bassey Okon, 24; Abraham Edet, 20; and Oto Udo, 24, were arrested during a raid on cannabis farms in Ijare Forest on Sunday, October 25. Operatives recovered 16 bags of processed cannabis weighing 180 kilogrammes.
In Edo State, NDLEA operatives, supported by soldiers, raided Eko Camp in Ilushi, Esan South-East Local Council, on Wednesday, October 28. They destroyed a cannabis plantation measuring 1.646 hectares, with an estimated yield of 4,115.53 kilogrammes.
A 50-year-old woman, Christiana Uboi, was arrested at the camp with 301 kilogrammes of processed cannabis, while another 176 kilogrammes was recovered during the operation.
Similarly, operatives of the agency’s Zone 7 Command in Sokoto, acting on intelligence, arrested a 68-year-old man, Ibrahim Ayuba, with 236.6 kilogrammes of skunk on Saturday, October 31.
Beyond the arrests and seizures, the agency sustained its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaign in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities across the country.
Recent activities included enlightenment lectures for students and staff of Obawole Grammar School II, Ojodu, Lagos; Nsukka High School, Enugu State; Government Technical College, Dorayi Babba, Rijiyar Zaki, Gwale Local Council, Kano; and Ajagbe Comprehensive High School, Iperu, Ogun State.
Commending officers and men of the Abuja airport and the Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Ondo, Oyo and Edo commands for the operations, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (retd.), described the arrest of the two cocaine couriers as a warning to Nigerians who believe that living abroad could provide cover for drug trafficking.
He said officers at the country’s entry and exit points remained vigilant, warning that anyone who risks their lives and liberty by ingesting illicit drugs for financial reward would be apprehended.
Marwa urged personnel across the country to sustain the agency’s crackdown on drug cartels while intensifying efforts to reduce drug demand through sensitisation programmes in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities.
