NDLEA Smashes N6.5 Billion Opioid Cartel At Lagos , Rivers Seaports

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted over six million opioid pills and 332,000 bottles of codeine syrup worth a staggering N6.5 billion at Lagos’ Apapa and Rivers’ Onne ports, dismantling a major drug trafficking network.

Two British nationals linked to the syndicate were arrested alongside Nigerian accomplices attempting to smuggle 51kg of potent cannabis through Lagos airport.

The agency also destroyed 77,000kg of skunk cannabis across Cross River and Edo states and seized thousands more in Nasarawa, intensifying the war on narcotics nationwide. This landmark operation highlights NDLEA’s relentless fight against drug cartels exploiting new trafficking routes into Nigeria.

This operation highlights NDLEA’s relentless fight against drug cartels exploiting new trafficking routes into Nigeria.

The seizures at the Apapa and Onne ports followed intelligence and tracking of new trafficking routes to ship illicit substances into Nigeria by drug cartels, which necessitated the watch-listing of the containers for 100 percent examination.

According to a statement on Sunday, the consignments at the Port Harcourt ports: six million pills of opioids and 162,000 bottles of codeine syrup were uncovered in two containers on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th May 2025 during a joint examination of the shipments by NDLEA officers with men of the Nigeria Customs and other security agencies.

At the Apapa port in Lagos, a total of 170,000 bottles of codeine syrup were discovered in a watch-listed container by NDLEA operatives during a similar joint examination exercise on Thursday 22nd May.

Meanwhile, two British nationals: Mhizha Jordan Alexander Tatendra and Ayedipe Andrew Adejuwon as well as two Nigerians: Shonowo Oluwaseun Imole and Ofuoma Omokaro Ayobami have been arrested by NDLEA operatives for attempting to smuggle into Nigeria 92 bags of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis weighing 51.10kg through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos.

Alexander was intercepted with the consignment upon his arrival at the MMIA on a Qatar Airline flight from Doha based on processed intelligence on Thursday 15th May. He was allowed to pass through the security control unhindered and closely monitored by NDLEA operatives to the car park, where the owner of the cargo, Ayedipe Andrew Adejuwon, who is a Nigerian British, was waiting in an SUV along with his relation Shonowo Oluwaseun Imole and the driver of the vehicle, Ofuoma Omokaro Ayobami, to receive the courier.

The NDLEA operatives tracking them however swooped on them as they attempted to drive out of the airport car park, arresting them with the drug exhibits in the vehicle. In his statement, Alexander confessed he was recruited during his vacation weeks ago while he was promised 1,300 British Pounds after a successful delivery of the consignment in Lagos.

The arrowhead of the syndicate, Ayedipe Andrew Adejuwon, confessed that he arrived in Nigeria a day earlier from South Africa through Ghana.