The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said that its operatives intercepted multiple consignments of illicit drugs concealed in frozen snails, electric bulbs and female clothing at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
According to a statement on Sunday by NDLEA spokesperson, Mr. Femi Babafemi, the drugs were headed for the United States, United Kingdom and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Babafemi said that at least two suspects were already in custody.
‘One of them, a cargo agent Boladale Riliwan was arrested on 7th October 2025 following the discovery of 15 parcels of skunk, a strain of cannabis, concealed in 10 pieces of giant rechargeable electrical bulbs he presented in a carton for airfreight to Democratic Republic of Congo at the export shed of the Lagos airport’, the statement read.
The spokesperson said that another suspect, Olawale Oyebola Hakeemot, a 48-year-old UK-based public health assistant, was arrested on 12 October, while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Manchester.
He said NDLEA operatives found 2,300 tramadol 225mg pills concealed in frozen snails inside her luggage.
Babafemi said that a separate syndicate’s plan to ship 810 bromazepam pills hidden in female clothes to the US was also foiled at a courier company in Lagos on 16 October.
He said that in Adamawa State, operatives intercepted a suspect, Bello Buba at an NDLEA checkpoint in Namtari, Yola South Local Government Area, with 38,270 tramadol pills concealed in the spare tyre, boot and door compartments of his Honda Civic, after driving in from Benin Republic.
The statement added: ‘Not less than 53,250 kilograms of skunk were destroyed on 21.3 hectares of cannabis farm in Ilawe Ekiti, Ekiti state, with 70 bags of the same psychoactive substance weighing 1,140kg recovered by NDLEA operatives during an operation that lasted between Sunday 12th and Monday 13th October.
‘Suspects arrested include: Matthew Emmanuel, 26; James Moses, 27; and Israel Samuel, 20.
‘This followed the destruction of 17,400kg skunk on 6.96 hectares of plantation by NDLEA operatives at Aponmu forest reserve, Akure, Ondo state on Sunday 12th October’.
‘I urge our officers and men across the country not to relent in their ongoing balanced approach to drug control’, Marwa said.
