How NDLEA arrested notorious drug baron in Lagos after 17 years on the run

After 17 years of operating in the shadows to ship illicit drugs worth billions of naira across the world, the reign of 59-year-old drug baron Ogbonnaya Kevin Jeff has come to an end after operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested him at his hideout in the Ojo area of Lagos.

The NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), announced the arrest during a press briefing in Abuja yesterday, describing it as a significant breakthrough in the agency’s efforts to dismantle international drug trafficking syndicates.

Marwa explained that personnel of the NDLEA’s Special Operations Unit had been on Jeff’s trail following an Interpol red notice and intelligence from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. He said Jeff, a leader of an international drug trafficking organisation, was wanted worldwide for coordinating the smuggling of illicit substances into South Korea and other countries.

“On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, we achieved a major objective in the successful arrest of Ogbonnaya Kevin Jeff,” Marwa announced. He revealed that the suspect was apprehended at No. 3, Ibukunoluwa Taiwo Close, off LASU Road in Lagos, after years of surveillance. A search of the residence uncovered several Nigerian international passports bearing different identities, many with Korean visas, as well as a storehouse containing illicit substances.

According to Marwa, Jeff is not just a domestic drug baron but an international trafficker who has operated both within and outside Nigeria. Investigations revealed he had served a one-year prison sentence in South Korea in 2007 before being deported to Nigeria in 2008. Despite his deportation, he resumed his illicit activities, recruiting young Nigerians as couriers and laundering drug proceeds through the importation of electronics and other goods.

Marwa stated that Jeff’s operations extended beyond Nigeria, with syndicate members spread across Cameroon, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Liberia, and other parts of East and Southern Africa. The NDLEA established that Jeff orchestrated drug trafficking operations remotely, issuing instructions to drug mules and domestic suppliers.

Providing further details, Marwa disclosed how Jeff concealed 6,051.06 grammes of skunk in dried chillies and jujube, dispatching the package from Burkina Faso to a Korean accomplice, Kim Dong Wook, in Jinju City, South Korea. The shipment, worth over N1.4 billion, arrived at Incheon Airport on October 29, 2023.

Additionally, between December 2023 and April 2024, Jeff directed two couriers, Santa Elizabeth Pieterse and Carl Yohan Stephan Brisman, to smuggle five kilogrammes of methamphetamine into South Korea.

The suspect maintained another local carrier known as “Asa,” who delivered drug consignments to a warehouse managed by Okori Emmanuel, a Nigerian who served as Jeff’s supply manager in South Korea. Jeff’s illicit activities have led to two arrest warrants being issued by the Seoul Central District Court in 2024, charging him with multiple narcotics offences punishable by life imprisonment under South Korea’s Narcotics Control Act. Marwa emphasised the NDLEA’s commitment to ensuring that Nigeria does not serve as a hub for international drug trafficking operations.

“We will continue our relentless fight against illicit drug networks and their financiers, in line with our mandate to safeguard public health and national security,” he said.