NDLEA arrests American basketball player at Lagos airport

The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have apprehended an American professional basketball player with a 33.95kg shipment of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, from Thailand at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in the Ikeja area of Lagos State.

The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday, November 15, 2026.

Babafemi said NDLEA officers acting on credible intelligence intercepted a 28-year-old American citizen, Greene Da’monte Khiree, who arrived in Lagos aboard an Emirates Airline flight from Thailand via Dubai, on Wednesday, November 11.

Babafemi said the suspect, who was placed under discreet surveillance upon arrival, was observed abandoning his two checked-in bags before attempting to exit the airport with only his carry-on luggage.

He revealed that the basketball player was promptly apprehended at the airport car park.

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The NDLEA spokesperson said a search of the two abandoned bags, both bearing the suspect’s name tag, revealed 16 parcels of Loud in each, totalling 32 parcels with a combined weight of 33.95 kilograms.

Babafemi stated that a tracking device was also recovered from the bags.

Babafemi noted that the suspect, a native of Savannah, Georgia in the United States, who claimed he has lived in Thailand since October 2025 where he plays professional basketball, said he came to Nigeria on holiday to build networks for his basketball career.

The NDLEA spokesman added that a forensic examination of the basketball player’s mobile phone revealed information pointing to his knowledge of and involvement in the drug trafficking activity.