The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 62-year-old Lagos-based trader, Nwabueze Nicholas Izueke, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport while attempting to travel to China with cocaine concealed inside his body.
According to the agency, Izueke was apprehended on January 31, 2026, during outbound screening for an Ethiopian Airlines flight to China via Addis Ababa. A body scan confirmed he had ingested illicit substances, and he was placed under medical observation, during which he expelled 95 pellets of cocaine weighing about 1.59 kilograms.
NDLEA said the suspect, who claimed to be involved in clothing and auto spare parts business, confessed that he turned to drug trafficking to raise funds to complete a house project in his hometown of Iwollo, Enugu State.
In related operations, NDLEA operatives recovered 627.7 kilograms of skunk from a makeshift warehouse at Fums Plaza, Kubwa, Abuja. The agency also foiled attempts by Ebube Okeke, Evans Ugwu, Mohammed Eze Arinze and Friday Michael to transport methamphetamine hidden inside MP3 speakers from Enugu to Abuja and Kaduna.
A follow-up operation in Zuba, FCT, led to Okeke’s arrest, while the remaining suspects were later apprehended in Kaduna when they arrived to collect another consignment.
Meanwhile, in Taraba State, officers intercepted Yusuf Abubakar, 32, at the Dan-Anacha patrol point in Gassol Local Government Area. A search of yogurt packs he was conveying from Lagos to Adamawa uncovered methamphetamine weighing about 1.8 kilograms.
In Oyo State, NDLEA officers also arrested a 29-year-old Beninese national, Shuaibu Abdulrahman, at Ibudo-Igboho village in Sooro Kishi, where 149.6 kilograms of skunk concealed in rice chaff were recovered.
