The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted consignments of captagon, popularly known as ‘Jihadi drug’, and millions of opioid tablets worth more than N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
The agency also arrested a 49-year-old cross-border drug kingpin, Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, in connection with the captagon consignment. He was apprehended after arriving in Lagos from Accra, Ghana, aboard an African World Airlines flight on Saturday, August 22, 2026.
A statement issued on Sunday by the Director, Media and Advocacy if NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said 47,200 pills of captagon worth over N1.5 billion were recovered from Aikins’ carton of local bathing soap, popularly known as “Ghana Soap”.
According to the statement, the illicit amphetamine drug was concealed inside blocks of soap in an attempt to evade detection.
Aikins, who was arrested after arriving from Ghana, allegedly told investigators that he was expected to deliver the consignment in northern Nigeria.
Captagon, described by the NDLEA as the ‘Jihadi drug’ because of its reported use in funding extremist activities in conflict zones, was first intercepted in Nigeria by the agency in September 2021 at the Apapa Port in Lagos.
In a separate operation at the Lagos Airport, NDLEA operatives recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg from four abandoned consignments at the import shed.
The consignments, weighing a combined 2,787.40 kilogrammes, have an estimated street value of more than N4.6 billion.
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 a Qatar Airways flight from Amsterdam.
The NDLEA said the consignments had been placed under surveillance after no one appeared to claim them before they were formally retrieved following a joint examination involving the agency, the Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders on Friday, August 28.
Also in Lagos, a 31-year-old United States returnee, Sowunmi David Oludotun, was arrested on August 19 at Ikate, Lekki, after allegedly showing up to take delivery of 3.350kg of “Loud”, a potent strain of cannabis imported from the United Kingdom.
In Rivers State, NDLEA operatives raided the notorious Abuja Down/Up area of Port Harcourt, where they recovered a fireproof iron safe containing different illicit drugs.
The agency said the safe was cracked open 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.
Meanwhile, three suspects — Oyedele Daniel, 42; Taye Saliu, 36; and Kehinde Saliu, 36 — were arrested on Friday, August 28, along the Ipele-Idoani Road in Ondo State with 728kg of skunk. The drugs were recovered from their truck marked KRE 120 XB.
Two other suspects, Uche Joseph, 35, and Godwin Umeh, 21, were arrested at Aponmu Forest on Wednesday, August 26, with 341kg of skunk.
In Delta State, the agency also recovered more than 176,000 pills of assorted opioids, including tramadol and Molly, during two separate interdiction operations conducted between August 26 and 28.
The NDLEA said its Commands and formations across the country also sustained its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaign during the week, targeting schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities.
The agency said the campaigns included enlightenment lectures at Markaz Littahfizul Quran Wal Islamiyyat, Dadin Kowa, Gombe State; Zangina Islamiyyah Alasawa Kurna, Ungogo Local Government Area of Kano State; and an adolescent lifestyle programme organised by NNPCL in Benin City, Edo State.
The Ondo State Command also paid a WADA advocacy visit to the state Governor, Dr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, while the Taraba State Command visited Governor Agbu Kefas on a similar advocacy mission.
Commending the officers and men of the Commands for the operations, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), urged personnel across the country to sustain the agency’s balanced approach to drug control.
Marwa also directed the operatives to maintain the pressure on traffickers who, he said, were becoming increasingly desperate and innovative in their attempts to conceal and move illicit drugs, including through everyday household items such as bathing soap.
