NDLEA Seizes ₦6.2bn in Captagon, Opioids at Lagos Airport

Officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency intercepted drug shipments valued at more than ₦6.2 billion during operations at Lagos airport over the weekend. The haul included 47,200 tablets of Captagon—a stimulant drug sometimes referred to as the 'Jihadi drug'—concealed within blocks of soap imported from Ghana, as well as approximately 3.9 million opioid tablets recovered from abandoned cargo in the airport's import facility.

A 49-year-old suspected drug trafficking network operator, Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, was detained on Saturday, August 22 after stepping off an African World Airlines flight arriving from Accra. The agency statement, released through its Director of Media and Advocacy Femi Babafemi, identified Aikins as a cross-border kingpin involved in moving narcotics between West African nations and Nigeria.

The Captagon discovery revealed a new smuggling tactic: concealing prohibited tablets inside everyday consumer products to evade airport screening. The opioid tablets, found separately in unclaimed shipments at the airport's storage area, represented an additional trafficking attempt that was intercepted before entering the local market.

In a separate arrest, a suspect named Sowunmi David Oludotun was also apprehended in connection with cannabis possession during related enforcement sweeps. The combined operations underscore patterns of drug trafficking activity passing through Lagos's primary air gateway, with traffickers employing varied concealment methods to move controlled substances into Nigeria.