On Christmas Eve, authorities from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency seized two boats carrying 1,960 kilograms of cannabis, known as “Ghanaian Loud,” at Eleko Beach in Lekki, Lagos. During a midnight operation, six foreign nationals were apprehended for transporting the drugs from Ghana. The suspects, including two Ghanaians and four Beninese individuals, had smuggled the cannabis into Nigeria via waterways.
The agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, reported that the Marine Command of NDLEA intercepted the boats loaded with the cannabis at 2:30 am on Christmas Eve. The arrested foreign nationals were identified as two Ghanaians and four Beninese citizens.
In a separate incident, a 48-year-old businessman named Orizu Arthur was arrested at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja while trying to board an Air France flight to Paris. Arthur was flagged when he refused a body scan, claiming medical reasons. Subsequent examination revealed that he had excreted 74 wraps of Class A drugs over a week. Arthur confessed to owning a shop in Lagos Island and was promised 3,000 Euros for delivering the drugs to Paris.
In Katsina, two suspects were arrested separately for possessing compressed cannabis sativa. Ibrahim Shaibu, 35, was found with 40 parcel-sized packages of the substance weighing 35kg, while Umar Ahmed, 47, was caught with 27 parcels weighing 13.5kg along the Zaria-Malumfashi road.
Furthermore, a raid in Benin City led to the arrest of a 21-year-old suspect named Kosisochukwu Ozigbo. Authorities recovered 32,490 tramadol pills, 936 bottles of codeine-based syrup, and various other opioids from the suspect.