The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has intercepted 589 bags of Canadian Loud, a strong type of cannabis, worth over N1 billion in street value at a hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The NDLEA said the operation took place between Friday, April 25, and Saturday, April 26, 2025, inside an 80-room, five-storey hotel, which was being used as a cover for selling illegal drugs. A total of 417.3 kilograms of the cannabis were seized.
In a statement by its Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the agency said three suspects were arrested during the operation, while two others are still on the run.
The agency also said several items believed to be bought with proceeds from the drug trade were recovered from the hotel. These included a Toyota Prado Landcruiser SUV, a Toyota Sienna, a Volkswagen Delivery Van, a Kia Ceranto, a Grand Caravan Dodge, 74 new TV sets, 10 used TV sets, and 13 refrigerators, among others.
In addition to the Lagos operation, the NDLEA said it also intercepted over two million pills of tramadol in Kano and Jigawa states.
The agency explained that its officers, acting on intelligence, seized opioids being transported from Kano to the Niger Republic and Yobe State through Jigawa. The seizure took place on April 23, around 2:30 am along the Kano-Ringim Road, near Gumel town. Two suspects were arrested at the scene.
Recovered from their Toyota Sienna vehicle were 200,000 pills of 250mg tramadol and 217,500 capsules of pregabalin.
The NDLEA said a follow-up operation led to the arrest of the supplier at his house in the Mil Tara, Layin Technical area of Kano. At the residence, officers found 1,584,000 additional pills of 250mg tramadol hidden inside a Nissan 18-seater bus and a room.
“This brings the total number of the recovered opioids to 2,001,500 pills,” the statement said.
In another operation, NDLEA officers intercepted 46 wraps of cocaine, weighing 547 grams, hidden in containers of body cream at a courier company in Lagos on April 23. The drugs were meant to be sent to a country in the Middle East.
The agency also said that on the same day, it seized another package containing 20 parcels of cocaine hidden inside religious books, which were bound for Saudi Arabia. In addition, officers intercepted a shipment carrying 1.8kg of pentazocine injection and 60 grams of bromazepam tablets heading for Canada.
Babafemi also disclosed that three Ghanaian women were arrested on April 20 at the Gbaji checkpoint in the Seme border area of Badagry, Lagos. They were caught while trying to smuggle 4.8 kilograms of Ghana Loud, a strong cannabis strain, into Nigeria.
The NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), praised the officers involved in the successful operations.
“While commending the officers and men of DOGI, Lagos, Kano, Jigawa, Edo, and Seme commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.) equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts,” the statement added.
