The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has disrupted attempts by suspected drug trafficking syndicates to move cocaine to Saudi Arabia and Italy. The agency intercepted 1.2 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside 25 phone chargers bound for Saudi Arabia through a courier company in Lagos, while another 500 grams hidden in the false bottom of a backpack was seized at a separate logistics company on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026.

NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said operatives also arrested 30-year-old Italy-based businessman Joseph Cyril at Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, on Sunday, Aug. 2. Cyril was intercepted while preparing to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight through Addis Ababa and France. He was placed under excretion observation and expelled 98 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.510 kilograms. Investigators said he arrived from Italy on July 13 and allegedly swallowed the drugs at a hotel in Awka, Anambra State.

Babafemi said Cyril told investigators he agreed to transport the cocaine for €3,500 to raise money to relocate to Germany, where his family lives. Meanwhile, NDLEA officers intercepted a truck on the Akure-Ilesha Expressway on Aug. 4 carrying 1,633 kilograms of skunk concealed in bags of rice chaff and arrested Buba Jamilu, 40, and Sanusi Ibrahim, 30. Other operations recovered 147 kilograms of skunk from Ita Ogbolu Forest and 731.03 kilograms from a drug warehouse in Oyo State, where 57-year-old Felicia Thompson was arrested.

The agency also reported recovering 604.5 kilograms of skunk in Edo, 7 kilograms in Abia and 88.5 kilograms from wanted drug dealer Adome Claude Sikuru in Badagry, Lagos. At Tin Can Port, officers working with the Nigeria Customs Service and other agencies seized 309.4 kilograms of cannabis-infused cookies and gummies from a container. NDLEA Chairman Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.) commended the officers involved and urged personnel nationwide to sustain the agency’s balanced approach to drug control.