NDLEA smashes cocaine cartel using courier firms as new smuggling route

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has dismantled an international cocaine trafficking cartel that used courier logistics companies in Nigeria to move drugs to the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe and Asia, in an operation that recovered a record 184.50 kilograms of cocaine from a single courier firm.

NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), disclosed this while addressing journalists in Lagos on Tuesday, describing it as one of the Agency’s most significant narcotics investigations in recent times.

Marwa said the operation began with the interception of the cocaine consignment concealed for export through a courier channel in Lagos, prompting him to set up a Special Investigation Team to trace the network from couriers to masterminds.

He said the team worked with the courier company’s management to unravel a web of intermediary companies and individuals, leading to the arrest of two key suspects, among others.

Marwa noted a shift by trafficking organisations away from seaports and airports toward courier and logistics firms, which he said they wrongly assumed to be less monitored.

He linked the case to earlier successes, including the dismantling of a Switzerland-based cartel that laundered proceeds through the dark web, and the takedown of two Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine syndicates operating clandestine laboratories in forests in Ogun and Oyo States.

Marwa said the near-simultaneous arrests of cartel members in Nigeria and the United Kingdom reflected strong international cooperation, and commended the Agency’s partners and its Special Investigation Team for the outcome.

He said the Agency remains committed to ensuring Nigeria is not used as a conduit for trafficking narcotics to any part of the world.