A 63-year-old Chinese grandmother, Ting Hung Kiong, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) after attempting to smuggle a large consignment of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
The suspect, a Chinese national naturalised in Malaysia, was arrested on Sunday, May 17, 2026, shortly after arriving in Nigeria from Thailand through Dubai aboard an Emirates Airline flight. NDLEA officers attached to the Terminal 2 Arrival Hall intercepted her with two large suitcases containing 31 kilograms of the illicit substance.
Investigations revealed that the elderly suspect travelled from Malaysia to Thailand before heading to Nigeria through the United Arab Emirates. During interrogation, she claimed to work as a caregiver in Malaysia and said her daughter sponsored the trip. She added that after spending two weeks in Thailand, she was handed the drug consignment at the airport for delivery in Nigeria.
In a separate operation at the Lagos airport import shed, NDLEA operatives also recovered 29 large cartons containing 1,825,710 tablets of Tapentadol 250mg valued at over N2.1 billion. The consignment, which arrived from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight, was closely monitored before it was handed over to the agency by the Nigeria Customs Service on Friday, May 22, 2026.
At the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, NDLEA operatives intercepted Onyeka Valentine Emeka during passenger clearance on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sierra Leone via Addis Ababa. The suspect was placed under observation and later excreted 185.36 grams of cocaine.
Similarly, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, a 29-year-old building engineer, Babatunde Prosper Afekhide, was arrested while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Milan, Italy, through Addis Ababa. A search of his luggage uncovered 10,280 pills of Tramaking 225mg, Tramadol 200mg and Tapentadol 250mg concealed in cartons and wrapped in foil paper to avoid detection.
The anti-narcotics agency also intercepted drug shipments at a Lagos courier company, including 1,174 pills of MDMA concealed in bicycle luggage carriers heading to the Netherlands, tramadol tablets hidden in soap containers bound for the United States, and more pills concealed in body cream containers destined for the United Kingdom.
In Edo State, operatives raided the Igwe community in Owan East Local Government Area, recovering 59 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 489kg alongside cannabis seeds weighing 9kg.
Along the Zaria-Kano road, officers arrested 30-year-old Isah Sani with 196,000 pills of Exol-5, while operatives at the Seme border in Badagry recovered 59kg of skunk from a warehouse in Mowo, Lagos.
In Ekiti State, NDLEA operatives raided a warehouse in Ikole-Ekiti and recovered 1,116 kilograms of skunk. A 54-year-old suspect, Ogundana Adebayo Julius, was arrested in connection with the seizure.
Beyond enforcement operations, the agency continued its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaign across schools and communities in Oyo, Anambra, Katsina, Lagos, Enugu, Ekiti and Kano states.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended officers involved in the various operations and urged commands across the country to sustain the momentum in both drug supply reduction and anti-drug awareness campaigns.
