By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted two trailers carrying 1,630,000 pills of tramadol 250mg in Lagos, dealing another blow to a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria route.
The operation, announced on Sunday by Femi Babafemi, NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, comes barely a week after operatives recovered 558,900 pills of tramadol from a truck that entered Lagos through the same corridor.
On 2nd July 2026, NDLEA officers tracked and intercepted one truck heading to Kano along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. They recovered 853,000 pills of tramadol 250mg hidden in a fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor and arrested the 22-year-old driver, Jabir Kabiru.
On 4th July, a second trailer was tracked and recovered on the same expressway. Operatives evacuated 777,000 pills of tramadol 250mg and arrested the 22-year-old driver, Muhammed Nuhu.
Investigations revealed that all three trucks intercepted on 21st June, 2nd July, and 4th July belong to the same syndicate smuggling tramadol across multiple borders into Nigeria.
At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, NDLEA intercepted two consignments of Canadian Loud weighing 4.70kg. The cargoes arrived from Canada on 24th June and 3rd July aboard British Airways and Ethiopian Airlines flights in cartons marked ‘Odugwu’.
Cargo agents Ali Rotimi Samson and Orimolade Oluwagbenga were arrested, followed by Edeh Onyeamachi Stanislus, who came to claim the goods. The alleged owner, 44-year-old businesswoman Chioma Nneka Mokeme, was arrested on 7th July in Surulere with help from the Nigeria Police. She told investigators that her Canada-based friend, Agbons Collins, introduced her to the trade.
