NDLEA apprehended a 30-year-old Italy-based businessman, Joseph Cyril, at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, after he was found to have ingested nearly 100 wraps of cocaine in a bid to smuggle the drug out of the country.
Cyril was stopped by NDLEA operatives at the departure hall on Sunday, August 2, 2026, as he prepared to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Italy, routed through Addis Ababa and France. Acting on suspicion, officers placed him under excretion observation, a standard procedure used to monitor internal drug carriers. Over the following days, he passed 98 wraps of cocaine from his system, with the total haul weighing roughly 1.5 kilograms.
According to the agency, Cyril had flown into Nigeria from Italy in mid-July and swallowed the drug capsules at a hotel in Awka, Anambra State, before travelling to Enugu to catch his outbound flight. He reportedly told investigators that he had been running a business in Italy for several years and agreed to move the consignment for a fee equivalent to about 3,500 Euros, money he intended to use to relocate to Germany, where his family currently resides.
His arrest came amid a broader run of enforcement activity by the NDLEA across the country in the days prior. In Lagos, officers at a courier firm intercepted an attempt to ship over a kilogram of cocaine hidden inside phone chargers destined for Saudi Arabia, while a separate package containing 500 grams of the drug, concealed in the false bottom of a backpack, was seized before it could be sent to Italy. A shipment of synthetic cannabis originating from the United States was also intercepted at a Lagos shipping company.
Elsewhere, operatives intercepted a truck loaded with over 1,600 kilograms of cannabis disguised among sacks of rice husks along the Akure-Ilesha expressway, resulting in two arrests, while a raid on a forest hideout in the same area yielded a further 147 kilograms of the drug. In Oyo State, a warehouse raid led to the recovery of more than 700 kilograms of cannabis and one arrest, and a similar operation in Edo State turned up over 600 kilograms hidden in dozens of bags.
Additional arrests followed in Abia State, where a suspect was picked up with a smaller quantity of cannabis, and in Lagos, where a long-sought drug dealer was finally captured after a months-long search, with nearly 90 kilograms of the drug found in his possession. Separately, officials at the Tincan port in Lagos uncovered dozens of cartons of cannabis-laced cookies and gummies concealed within a shipping container, leading to another arrest.
NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), commended the officers involved across the various commands and urged continued commitment to the agency’s ongoing counter-narcotics efforts nationwide.
READ ALSO: NDLEA Uncovers New Drug Smuggling Methods at Lagos Ports
English