NDLEA intercepts N6.2bn drugs at Lagos airport

The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted consignments of captagon, widely known as ‘Jihadi drug’, and millions of opioid pills worth over N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos State.

The captagon shipment was seized at the Lagos airport on August 22, 2026, following the arrest of a 49-year-old cross-border kingpin, Akinbile Aikins, who arrived from Accra Ghana aboard an African World Airlines flight.

The NDLEA said a search of the suspect’s carton of local bathing soap, popularly called “Ghana Soap,” led to the recovery of 47,200 pills of the illicit amphetamine drug worth over N1.5 billion concealed in blocks of soap.

The agency noted that captagon, which is notoriously dubbed the ‘Jihadi drug’ for its use in funding extremist activities in conflict zones, was first intercepted in Nigeria by NDLEA in September 2021 at the Apapa port in Lagos.

The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement issued on Sunday, August 30, said Akinbile claimed he was meant to deliver the consignment in the North.

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Babafemi added that 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg, with a combined gross weight of 2,787.40 kilograms and more than N4.6 billion in street value, were recovered from four abandoned consignments at the import shed of Lagos State.

Babafemi disclosed that three of the consignments, comprising 900,000 tablets of Tramaking (815.40kg), arrived aboard RwandAir flights from Bangladesh, while the fourth, comprising 3,000,030 tablets of Tapentadol (1,972kg), arrived on Qatar Airways from Amsterdam.

He stated that the shipments, which had been placed under close watch after no one showed up to claim them, were formally retrieved on Friday, August 28.