NDLEA smashes cartel, seizes 2.3 tonnes of illicit drugs, UK-bound colos

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted more than 2.3 tonnes of assorted illicit drugs in a series of operations across Lagos, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Kaduna, Plateau, Bayelsa and Kano states.

The seizures included shipments of Colorado, popularly known as Colos, concealed in consolidated cargoes from the United Kingdom, cannabis hidden in music speakers, opioids tucked inside loaves of bread and hundreds of thousands of pharmaceutical capsules.

Director of Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement Sunday that the operations also led to the arrest of a real estate agent, a 70-year-old woman, a grandmother, and several other suspects allegedly linked to the drug consignments.

“At the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, NDLEA operatives intercepted a UK-bound consignment containing 27 parcels of Colorado weighing 32.20kg”

“A real estate agent, Abideen Jide Salami, was subsequently arrested on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, after he reportedly arrived to collect a large luggage containing the illicit substance using a secret collection code allegedly relayed to him by his brother based in the UK” Babafemi said.

In a follow-up operation involving another UK consignment, operatives arrested Nurudeen Abiodun Kadiri, 44, who allegedly showed up as the designated recipient of another shipment containing 12.25kg of Colorado. The suspect reportedly told investigators that his brother in the UK sent the consignment.

The agency also uncovered another method being used by drug traffickers to move Colorado through Lagos.

Operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) intercepted a music speaker rigged with three packs of Colorado at a motor park in Maza Maza, Lagos, from where the consignment was allegedly being transported to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and ultimately Liberia.

A tour agent, Ifeanyi Obed Augustine, 41, and the alleged owner of the consignment, Obasi Ugochuckwu, 46, were arrested in a sting operation at a nearby eatery.

Similarly, a suspect, Ifeanyi Nwokolo Henry, was arrested at Iddo motor park on Friday, September 11, while allegedly attempting to dispatch 2.1kg of Colorado to Kano.

In Delta State, separate operations in Ughelli and Asaba resulted in the recovery of ampoules of pentazocine injection, codeine syrup, tramadol, diazepam, flunitrazepam, popularly known as Hypnox, and MDMA, also called Molly.