• Intercepts Italy-bound opioids, nabs Beninoise lady, others in nationwide raids
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a female leader of a drug syndicate, Simbiat Shodunke, who had been underground since May 2024 in her Lagos home.
During the raid, additional 23.50 kilogrammes of the class A drug were recovered from her children’s room. Her arrest came barely 24 months after a cocaine trafficking cartel, led by a couple, Lookman Dauda and Toheebat Dauda, was dismantled in Lagos and Ogun states, and multi-billion naira worth of the illicit drug seized from them.
Dauda and his queen, Toheebat, were arrested on Saturday, May 25, 2024, by operatives of a special operations unit of NDLEA at Ibiye, along Lagos-Badagry expressway while attempting to cross the land border to deliver the consignment in Ghana.
At the point of their arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5 kilogrammes were found on them. A swift follow up operation in their residence at Plot 24/25 OPIC extension, Petedo road, Agbara, Ogun State, led to the recovery of an additional eight blocks of the same drug weighing 10kg, bringing the total weight of the consignment seized from the couple to 57.5 kilogrammes.
Determined to rein in every member of the syndicate, the NDLEA operatives continued with follow up intelligence and surveillance on the trans-border drug trafficking organisation until a 39-year-old female stash keeper, Shodunke, was identified as a key member of the gang.
As a result, she was trailed to her 31 Onasanya Street, Surulere, Lagos residence on December 9, 2025. A thorough search of her home led to the discovery of blocks of cocaine weighing 23.50 kilogrammes concealed in a black suitcase recovered from her children’s room. She admitted ownership of the drug consignment worth over N5 billion in street value.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives attached to Terminal II Departure Hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos, last Thursday, intercepted a 36-year-old businessman, Nwanwene Robinson, with 1,020 pills of tramadol (225mg) and tapentadol (200mg) concealed in his luggage while attempting to board a Royal Air-Maroc flight to his base in Milan, Italy. He claimed the successful trafficking of the opioids to Italy would have fetched him €200.00 as a courier.
At the Seme border in Badagry area of Lagos, a 48-year-old Beninoise, Leocardi Josu, was arrested by NDLEA officers same Thursday, while attempting to cross into Nigeria with 3,400 tablets of tramadol (225mg), even as Abdullahi Adamu, 30, was nabbed along Okene/Lokoja highway with 28.400kg of skunk, a strain of cannabis and Colorado, on December 19.
In Oyo State, operatives, same December 19, recovered 125,000 capsules of tramadol and 1,800 ampoules of pentazocine injection in a Toyota Hiace bus marked XD 592 AWL along Lagos/Ibadan expressway, while Ogunlade Kazeem, 54, and Adeleke Ismail, 30, were arrested with 185.4 kilogrammes of skunk at Challenge Motor Park, Ibadan, on December 17.
A total of 405kg of skunk was seized when NDLEA operatives raided Owena/Ijesha forest in Osun State where one Charles James, 45, was nabbed on December 19, while Jamilu Zakari, 42, was arrested with 14,960 pills of tramadol 225mg at the tollgate, along Abuja/Kaduna highway the same day.
The consignment of opioids was concealed in two kolanut sacks (huhun goro) coming from Abuja to Gusau, Zamfara State. Across all commands and formations of the agency nationwide, officers continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA), sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week.
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig-Gen Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd), commended the officers and men of the Special Operations Unit, MMIA, Seme, Kogi, Kaduna, Oyo and Osun commands for the arrests, seizures and their dexterity.
He enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to remain extra vigilant during the festive season and ensure that the highest standard of professionalism is maintained in all their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities all through the period and beyond.
