Nigeria’s anti-narcotics agency has arrested a South African woman at Abuja’s international airport after allegedly finding 5.75 kilogrammes of heroin concealed in her luggage, while also announcing a series of major drug seizures across the country.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said the 38-year-old suspect was arrested on July 6 during the arrival clearance of passengers on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha.

In a statement on Sunday, NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said the woman had arrived with her three-year-old son and initially denied checking in any luggage.

The statement read, “Though she initially denied travelling with check-in bags, after operatives were able to quickly establish that the two bags containing the drugs had tags which tallied with the claim tags attached to her passport, she recanted and admitted ownership of the bags, adding that she forgot she checked in the two bags.”

Officers later matched baggage claim tags attached to her passport with two suitcases found to contain 14 parcels of heroin weighing 5.75 kilogrammes, prompting her to acknowledge ownership of the bags, the agency said.

According to the NDLEA, the suspect told investigators she had travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.

The agency said preliminary intelligence suggested she was linked to a transnational drug trafficking network allegedly operating between Cambodia and South Africa.

In a separate operation at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, NDLEA officers arrested a 48-year-old Nigerian man who arrived from Madagascar through Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

The agency said an initial search uncovered 87 wraps of methamphetamine hidden in his luggage. The suspect later excreted 13 additional pellets while under observation, bringing the total recovery to 100 wraps weighing 1.715 kilogrammes.

Investigators said the suspect claimed he had worked as a commercial motorcycle rider in Lagos before being recruited by an associate based in Uganda to transport illicit drugs.

He allegedly ingested part of the drug consignment in Uganda before travelling to Madagascar, but was denied entry and redirected to Nigeria, where he was arrested.

In another operation, the NDLEA said it intercepted 8,287 bags of Canadian Loud, a potent synthetic cannabis strain, weighing 4,143.5 kilogrammes at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos.

The drugs, with an estimated street value exceeding ₦10.3 billion, were discovered during a joint inspection involving the NDLEA, the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies after weeks of surveillance on a container shipped from Montreal, Canada.

The agency also said it foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilogrammes of skunk concealed inside a gas compressor destined for Cyprus through a Lagos-based courier company.

Beyond enforcement operations, the NDLEA said it continued its War Against Drug Abuse awareness campaign in schools across Ebonyi, Kano, Ekiti and Ogun states as part of efforts to reduce drug demand through public education.

NDLEA Chairman Buba Marwa commended officers involved in the operations and urged commands nationwide to sustain both enforcement activities and drug prevention campaigns.