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A total of 70 parcels of cocaine, factory-packed in the walls of cocoa butter formula body cream containers and heading to London, United Kingdom, have been uncovered at the export shed of the Lagos International Airport by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), with three suspects arrested in a series of follow-up operations across Lagos. The Director, Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, said in a statement on Sunday that the cocaine consignments, weighing 3.60 kilograms, were discovered on 14th October 2025 during the examination of cargoes packaged as personal effects going to London, UK, on an Air Peace flight. A cargo agent, Lawal Mustapha Olakunle, who presented the consignment for airfreight, was promptly arrested, while investigations stretching into two weeks led to the arrest of two principal suspects linked to the attempt to export the concealed Class A drug to the UK. In a follow-up operation on 18th October, Babafemi said a female healthcare worker, Ogunmuyide Taiwo Deborah, was arrested, following which Mutiu Adebayo Adebiyi, the Chief Executive Officer of a travel agency, Mutiu Adebiyi & Co, was arrested at his office at 23 Ladoke Akintola Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, on Monday, 20th October. In a similar development, an attempt by a 35-year-old Lesotho national, Lemena Mark, to export 103.59 grams of methamphetamine concealed in a Diabeta herbs coffee tea pack to the Philippines on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu, on Wednesday 22nd October, was thwarted by NDLEA officers, who arrested him and recovered the illicit drug. No fewer than 21,950 capsules of tramadol 250mg, concealed inside a 100-litre water heater, were recovered from a suspect, Umar Abubakar, who was arrested by NDLEA operatives at Bode Saadu, Moro Local Government Area of Kwara State, following credible intelligence on 21st October. In Lagos, the statement said NDLEA operatives, in the early hours of 26th October, raided Proxy Night Club at 7 Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, where a drug party was going on. Over 100 suspects, including the owner of the club, Mike Eze Nwalie Nwogu, alias Pretty Mike, were arrested and taken into custody for screening. Cartons of illicit substances, including Loud and laughing gas, were recovered from suspects at the party and the club’s store. The raid followed intelligence about the drug party. NDLEA operatives, who were embedded in the party between 11 p.m. on Saturday, 25th October, however, disrupted the gathering at 3 a.m. on Sunday, 26th October, based on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). In Taraba, the duo of Auwal Musa and Salihu Bala were, on 21st October, arrested with 450,000 pills of tramadol and Exol-5 at Dan-Anacha checkpoint while conveying the consignment in a truck loaded with building materials from Onitsha, Anambra State, to Mubi, Adamawa State. While NDLEA officers on patrol along the Okene/Lokoja highway, Kogi State, seized 162.200 kg of skunk, a strain of cannabis, from a truck on Friday, 24th October, operatives in Nasarawa State, on 22nd October, recovered 128 kg of the same psychoactive substance from a suspect, Abubakar Muhammad, in the Keffi area of the state. A mother of two, Oyonumoh Glory Effiong, who is a major distributor of Canadian and California Loud, both strong strains of cannabis, in the Lekki, Ajah, Ikoyi, Victoria Island and VGC areas of Lagos, was arrested by NDLEA operatives on Friday, 17th October, during a raid at her Lekki home, where 500 grams of the illicit substances were recovered. In the Ikorodu area of Lagos State, NDLEA officers, on 23rd October, raided the home of a suspect, Ogunyabo Adenigbigbe, at Solomade Estate, where 275 litres of skuchies, a new psychoactive substance produced with blackcurrant drink, cannabis and opioids, were recovered. A 75-year-old grandfather, Echendu Onuoka, the statement said, was arrested on 22nd October at Ovum village, Obingwa LGA, Abia State, with 4.7 kg of skunk seized from him, while a 60-year-old grandmother, Aukana John, was nabbed with 225 grams of the same substance at Apanta village in the same LGA. While 150 kg of skunk was recovered during a raid operation at Lot Camp, Ikun Akoko, Ondo State, two suspects, Bashir Mohammad and Samini Ahmed Tijjani, were nabbed with 234.5 kg of the same substance at Yan Aya, Saminaka, in Lere LGA, Kaduna, on 24th October, just as another set of suspects, Isah Usman and Salvation Okoler, were arrested with 8,600 pills of tramadol 225mg and rohypnol along the Abuja/Kaduna highway. At the Seme border area of Lagos, NDLEA operatives, on 22nd October, nabbed Jacob Ojugbele with 55 kg of skunk at Ashipa area of Badagry, while Amusa Oluwabukola was arrested with 121.3 litres of skuchies at Itoga, Badagry. In Zamfara State, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Gummi–Anka Road on 20th October arrested a suspect, Abubakar Ibrahim, in possession of an AK-47 rifle and 1,746 assorted calibres of ammunition for AK-47 and GPMG rifles while moving them from Sokoto to Bagega Forest, Anka LGA, Zamfara. Both the suspect and the exhibits have since been handed over to the appropriate security agency for further investigation. While commending the officers and men of the various commands for the arrests and seizures, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig-Gen. Mohamed Marwa (Rtd) urged them and their colleagues across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the Agency. ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
