NDLEA Seizes Drugs Worth Over ₦3.4 Billion, Nets Impostor Posing As Police Officer
By Sherif Salau
A coordinated series of intelligence-led actions by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has resulted in the seizure of opioids and cannabis valued at more than ₦3.4 billion, alongside the arrest of a trafficker who systematically used a false police identity to move consignments across state borders.
Over the course of recent operations spanning Lagos, Edo, Delta, Niger, Ondo, Gombe, Imo and the Federal Capital Territory, agency teams recovered more than 1.3 million pills of tramadol and related opioids together with approximately 6,000 kilograms of cannabis strains. The total street value of the recovered substances exceeds ₦3.4 billion.
The single largest recovery occurred at Tin Can Island Port in Lagos. A 40-foot container that arrived from Montreal, Canada, on 12 September was monitored and later examined jointly with the Nigeria Customs Service and other agencies. Inside, officers found 1,200 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 603.75 kilograms. The high-potency cannabis, valued at roughly ₦1.81 billion, had been concealed in 31 black jumbo bags loaded into two Toyota Sienna vehicles within the container.
In Delta State, operatives intercepted a silver Toyota Sienna along the Benin-Onitsha Expressway near Asaba on 16 September. The vehicle contained 292.48 kilograms of skunk. The driver, 49-year-old Innocent Ekpe, was detained together with an alleged accomplice, 39-year-old Nduka Joseph. Subsequent investigation established that Ekpe had for a prolonged period presented himself as a Deputy Superintendent of Police named Godwin Emeka, relying on a forged identity card to reduce scrutiny at security checkpoints while transporting illicit loads.
A further operation in Benin City, Edo State, targeted an auto-repair workshop on Agbor Road. The owner, 45-year-old Matthew Ossai, was arrested after the premises were found to have been used as a storage point for controlled substances.
Additional recoveries and arrests were recorded in other states, including the detention of three young men—two of them teenagers—on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway in Niger State in possession of firearms and ammunition.
The agency has indicated that investigations into the broader networks connected to these seizures remain active, with particular attention on the international supply routes that delivered the Canadian Loud and the domestic distribution systems that relied on impersonation and commercial fronts. The volume and variety of substances recovered illustrate both the scale of trafficking activity and the adaptive methods employed to move high-value narcotics through Nigeria’s transport corridors and ports.
For the NDLEA, the operations represent a measurable interruption of supply chains that would otherwise have channelled substantial quantities of pharmaceutical opioids and potent cannabis into local markets.
