Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have uncovered a string of creative but desperate smuggling attempts, seizing consignments of illicit drugs concealed inside frozen snails, electrical bulbs, and women’s clothing. The drugs were destined for the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In a statement on Sunday, NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi said the agency’s operatives made the discoveries during separate operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) and a courier company in Lagos. Two suspects linked to the attempted exports have already been arrested.
One of them, identified as cargo agent Boladale Riliwan, was apprehended on October 7 after NDLEA officers found 15 parcels of skunk hidden inside 10 giant rechargeable bulbs he was shipping to Congo. Another suspect, 48-year-old Olawale Oyebola Hakeemot, a UK-based health worker, was arrested while attempting to board a flight to Manchester with 2,300 pills of tramadol stuffed inside frozen snails.
The agency also intercepted 810 pills of bromazepam concealed in female clothing destined for the U.S., during a raid at a Lagos courier company. Nationwide, NDLEA operatives made further seizures — from 38,000 pills of tramadol hidden in a car tyre in Adamawa to over 53,000kg of cannabis plants destroyed in Ekiti and Ondo States.
In Oyo, Ogun, Imo, and Enugu states, several suspects were arrested with large quantities of skunk and opioids, while at the Apapa Port in Lagos, NDLEA and Customs officers jointly intercepted 80,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup imported from India.
Babafemi reaffirmed that the NDLEA remains relentless in its war against drug trafficking, emphasizing that traffickers’ increasingly inventive methods will continue to be met with equally sophisticated detection and enforcement.
