Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted consignments of captagon, popularly known as the “Jihadi drug”, and millions of opioid tablets worth more than N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.

The agency also arrested a 49-year-old cross-border drug kingpin and recovered cocaine, heroin and other illicit substances during separate operations in Rivers, Ondo and Delta states.

The captagon consignment was intercepted on Saturday, August 22, following the arrest of Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, who arrived in Lagos from Accra, Ghana, aboard an African World Airlines flight.

According to the NDLEA, a search of the suspect’s carton of local bathing soap, popularly known as “Ghana soap”, led to the discovery of 47,200 pills of captagon concealed inside blocks of soap. The consignment was valued at more than N1.5 billion.

Aikins reportedly told investigators that he was expected to deliver the consignment in northern Nigeria.

Captagon, an illicit amphetamine-type stimulant, has been widely associated with trafficking networks and extremist groups in conflict zones. The NDLEA first intercepted the drug in Nigeria in September 2021 at the Apapa Port in Lagos.

In a separate operation at the Lagos airport, the agency recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg, weighing a combined 2,787.40 kilogrammes and estimated at more than N4.6 billion in street value.

The drugs were recovered from four abandoned consignments at the import shed of the MMIA after no importer or consignee showed up to claim them.

Three of the consignments contained 900,000 tablets of Tramaking, weighing 815.40kg, and arrived aboard RwandAir flights from Bangladesh. The fourth consignment contained 3,000,030 tablets of Tapentadol, weighing 1,972kg, and arrived on Qatar Airways from Amsterdam.

The consignments had been placed under surveillance before being formally retrieved following a joint examination by NDLEA officials, the Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders on Friday, August 28.

Also in Lagos, NDLEA operatives on August 19 arrested a 31-year-old United States returnee, Sowunmi David Oludotun, in the Ikate area of Lekki while attempting to take delivery of 3.350kg of “Loud”, a potent strain of cannabis allegedly imported from the United Kingdom.

In Rivers State, operatives raided a notorious drug hideout in the Abuja Down/Up area of Port Harcourt, where they recovered a fireproof iron safe containing cocaine, heroin and Colorado cannabis.

The safe was reportedly opened with a welding machine on Tuesday, August 25, leading to the recovery of 237 grammes of Colorado, 316 grammes of cocaine and 10 grammes of heroin.

In Ondo State, three suspects — Oyedele Daniel, 42; Taye Saliu, 36; and Kehinde Saliu, 36 — were arrested along the Ipele-Idoani Road on August 28 with 728kg of skunk concealed in a truck marked KRE 120 XB.

wo other suspects, Uche Joseph, 35, and Godwin Umeh, 21, were arrested in Aponmu Forest on August 26 with another 341kg of the same substance.

In Delta State, the NDLEA said more than 176,000 tablets of assorted opioids, including tramadol and Molly, were recovered during two separate interdiction operations between August 26 and 28.

The latest seizures came against the backdrop of growing concerns over drug trafficking and abuse in Delta State, where the NDLEA said it had seized illicit substances worth about N2 billion within the past year.

The State Commander, Halilu Hamidu, disclosed this in Ogwashi-Uku while receiving a management team from the Delta State Bureau for Orientation and Communications, led by its Director-General, Dr Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe.

Hamidu said several drug-related cases were currently before the courts, while expressing particular concern over the significant number of women being arrested in connection with drug trafficking in the state.

He called for stronger collaboration among government agencies, families, schools, civil society organisations, traditional and community leaders to tackle substance abuse and trafficking.