OPERATIVES of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted consignments of cocaine concealed in a local mortar and in the false bottom of a backpack, both packaged for shipment to China and Italy, respectively, through a logistics company in Lagos.
News Point Nigeria reports that the Director of Media and Advocacy at the NDLEA Headquarters in Abuja, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday, detailing a series of anti-drug operations carried out by the agency across the country.
Babafemi said the seizures were made by NDLEA officers attached to the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations (DOGI) on Thursday, July 30, 2026.
According to him, the recovered exhibits included 250 grams of cocaine factory-fitted into the base of a local mortar packed inside a carton for export to China, as well as 500 grams of the same Class A drug hidden in the false bottom of a backpack intended for shipment to Italy.
The NDLEA spokesman further disclosed that operatives in Rivers State arrested a 38-year-old notorious drug dealer, Ugo Gift Okonkwo, at Eagle Island, Port Harcourt, following credible intelligence.
He said the suspect was apprehended on Sunday, July 26, while in possession of various quantities of cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, swinol, tramadol and codeine syrup.
Babafemi also stated that NDLEA officers conducting a stop-and-search operation at the DMGS Roundabout in Onitsha, Anambra State, on Monday, July 27, intercepted a truck with registration number XK 131 BDG loaded with 26,000 bottles of codeine syrup weighing 3,960 kilograms.
He added that the truck driver, Chinedu Nwanze, 40, was arrested in connection with the seizure.
In Delta State, the agency recovered 331.84 kilograms of skunk from a Toyota Sienna bus with registration number KUJ 26 DV along the Kwale/Ughelli Expressway on Sunday, July 26.
Similarly, NDLEA officers in Nasarawa State arrested a 64-year-old suspect, Joseph Nwaeke, on Tuesday, July 28, at Asso Angwan Muazu in the Karu area of the state, where they recovered 68 kilograms of skunk and 29 grams of methamphetamine.
The statement further read: “In Zamfara, NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Zaria-Gusau highway on Monday, July 27, intercepted a suspect, Sani Umar, 27, conveying 7,400 pills of tramadol 225mg suspected to be supplies for criminal elements.”
Babafemi noted that the agency also sustained its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy campaign across the country during the past week.
He said the sensitisation activities included enlightenment lectures for students and staff of Hausawa Special Primary School, Kano; Royal Crown School, Oluyole, Ibadan; Government Secondary School, Ibi, Taraba State; and commercial drivers at Challenge Bus Terminal Park in Ibadan, Oyo State, among other locations.
While commending officers and men of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations as well as the Rivers, Anambra, Delta, Nasarawa and Zamfara Commands for the successful operations, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), urged them and their colleagues across the country to sustain the agency’s balanced approach to drug control efforts.
Marwa encouraged the operatives to remain committed to both aggressive enforcement operations and preventive advocacy programmes aimed at curbing drug abuse and illicit trafficking nationwide.