NDLEA Nabs Cocaine Ingesting Groom At Enugu Airport, Seizes N3Bn Opioid Haul In Lagos
By Sunday Etuka
A 25-year-old newlywed businessman, Lovely Chukwulobelu, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, after he was found to have ingested 72 wraps of cocaine in a bid to smuggle the drug to Portugal, where he resides, even as the agency intercepted opioids worth over N3 billion at the Lagos airport in a separate operation.
Chukwulobelu was intercepted at the departure hall of the Enugu airport on Thursday, September 25, 2026, still wearing his wedding ring, as he attempted to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Portugal via Addis Ababa. Officers placed him under excretion observation, during which he egested a total of 72 wraps of the Class A drug.
NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed in a statement on Sunday that the suspect told operatives he had been into the car decoration business at the Trade Fair Complex in the Ojo area of Lagos before relocating to Portugal in May 2023.
He said he returned to Nigeria to get married on September 13, 2026, and turned to drug trafficking to offset the expenses incurred from his wedding.
In a separate operation at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, NDLEA operatives uncovered one of the year’s biggest opioid hauls on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, during the joint examination of three monitored consignments.
The seizure yielded 2,550,000 pills of Tramaking 225mg, Tramaking 250mg, and Royal Tapentadol 250mg, with a combined gross weight of 1,640.55 kilograms. The consignments had been imported from India and Bangladesh via Qatar Airways, RwandAir, and Ethiopian Airlines.
In Bauchi, NDLEA operatives arrested two suspects, Umar Hamidu, 35, and Abdulkarim Salihu, 45, along the Maiduguri bypass with 300 compressed blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis weighing 262.5 kilograms, concealed in the false bottom of a truck.
Separately, two cannabis farms with a combined estimated yield of 1,360.23 kilograms were destroyed at Eko Camp, Ilushi, Edo State, by NDLEA officers supported by soldiers on Wednesday, September 23.
In Lagos, two female suspects, Odumabo Kehinde, 36, and Obiekwe Chioma, 40, were arrested on Saturday, September 26, when operatives raided Anifowoshe Street in Mushin and recovered 3.4 kilograms of skunk from them.
In another operation the same day, officers intercepted a 58-year-old man, Ugwu Johnson, at the Ebute-Ero motor park with a large quantity of illicit consignments, including 5.92 kilograms of skunk, 2,400 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 8,400 tablets of nitrazepam, and 40,000 tablets of tramadol.
Two Togolese nationals, Yinusa Abdulsamad, 35, and Fatai Baba, 33, were arrested on Saturday, September 26, along the Iganna-Ilero road in Oyo State with 305.6 kilograms of skunk concealed in two pick-up vans used in a cross-border trafficking operation moving Ghanaian-sourced cannabis into Nigeria through the Oyo axis.
At the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, five suspects, Kingsley John, 40; John Chibuike Okeke, 44; Lamidi Ismaila, 40; Babatunde Samuel, 42; and Afeesu Idowu, 47, were arrested with 420 cartons of nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, weighing 1,688.4 kilograms, along with two vehicles used to convey the exhibits from the border into Lagos.
Alongside its enforcement operations, NDLEA commands and formations across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation drive in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities during the week under review.
These included lectures to students and staff of Community High School, Saki, Oyo State; Auchi College, Auchi, Edo State; Alkali Modibbo Islamic Centre, Dukku, Gombe State; and Junior Arabic Secondary School, Kahu, Kibiya Local Government Area, Kano State, while the Delta Ports Command paid an advocacy visit to His Royal Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatshe III, the Olu of Warri, Delta State.
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), commended officers and men of the MMIA, AIIA, Lagos, Oyo, Edo, Seme and Bauchi commands for the successful operations and urged them and their colleagues nationwide to sustain the agency’s balanced approach to drug control.
