The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 34-year-old South African woman with 36.65kg of cocaine at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, and a 62-year-old Nigerian-American woman with 9.45kg of hashish allegedly imported from the United States.
According to a press release issued on Sunday, by NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the South African suspect, Qhina Beauty, was arrested on October 7 whereas getting ready to board a Qatar Airways flight to South Africa by way of Doha.
A search of her two journey luggage uncovered 30 blocks of cocaine weighing 36.65kg. The medication have been wrapped in cellophane tape, packed into seven parcels and hid with dried pepper.
NDLEA traces cocaine cargo to Lagos automotive seller
The company mentioned Beauty instructed investigators she arrived in Nigeria on September 30 particularly to gather the consignment.
- “She said she was recruited by another South African lady, who promised her R20,000 on successful delivery. She claimed she was introduced to two other members of the syndicate: one based in the United States and the other a Lagos-based car dealer,” the agecy mentioned.
Further investigations led to the arrest of 46-year-old automotive seller Uchenna Victor Umunnakwe on October 14 at Apple Junction, Ago Palace Way, Lagos, following surveillance at his residence in Shasha.
According to the NDLEA, Umunnakwe admitted receiving Beauty at the airport, lodging her at Santiago Hotel in Amuwo-Odofin and later transferring her to Cynarisso Hotel close to the airport forward of her departure.
Nigerian-American grandmother arrested with 9.45kg of hashish
In a separate operation, NDLEA officers arrested Anetor Gloria Ubong, a 62-year-old realtor primarily based in Richmond, Texas, after she arrived at the Lagos airport on a United Airlines flight from Houston on October 21.
The company mentioned a search of her two checked-in bins revealed 18 parcels of a hashish product referred to as loud, weighing 9.45kg and hid with gift-wrapping paper inside a field.
Ubong, who holds Nigerian and United States passports, allegedly instructed investigators that her daughter and the daughter’s future brother-in-law had delivered the field to her dwelling within the US for onward supply in Nigeria to her daughter’s fiancé, recognized as Jibola.
NDLEA seizes opioids, hashish throughout a number of states
Beyond the airport arrests, the company reported a number of drug seizures and arrests throughout the nation.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives arrested 41-year-old Eletu Rasheedat in Eti-Osa on October 23, recovering 5,820 diazepam tablets, 780 tramadol tablets, 3.7kg of skunk and 230.25 litres of a domestically produced alcoholic-drug combination referred to as skuchies.
In Delta State, officers arrested 51-year-old Peter Ugochukwu in Warri with a big cache of pharmaceutical opioids and different substances. The seized gadgets included 29,350 tramadol capsules, 6,620 tramadol 200mg tablets, 4,116 bottles of codeine syrup, 11,340 Rohypnol tablets, 3,500 diazepam tablets, 300 ampoules of pentazocine injection and 200 ampoules of diazepam injection, alongside portions of tramadol 225mg, Molly and Cocodamol.
According to the company, the suspect and a white Hummer bus have been transferred from the Nigeria Police Force in Delta State.
In a separate operation at Enhere Junction, Warri, officers arrested 46-year-old Helen Bakporo Samson on October 19 with 6kg of skunk.
In Oyo State, NDLEA operatives arrested 41-year-old Fajana Dada Oluwaseyi within the Adamasingba space of Ibadan on October 19. The company mentioned he had earlier escaped arrest after officers seized 197.8kg of hashish from his residence on September 16.
NDLEA’s wider anti-drug crackdown
The newest arrests kind half of wider NDLEA efforts to disrupt drug trafficking networks, intercept massive consignments of illicit substances and prosecute offenders throughout Nigeria.
In July 2026, Nairametrics reported that the NDLEA intercepted 1.63 million tramadol 250mg pills hid in fabricated compartments of two trailers alongside the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The company linked the consignments to a transnational drug trafficking syndicate working alongside the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria route.
In August 2026, the company destroyed 329,865.585kg of assorted illicit drugs and psychotropic substances valued at an estimated N301.06 billion in Lagos. The train adopted a Federal High Court order and lined medication linked to concluded circumstances and deserted seizures.
