The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested 62-year-old Lagos-based businessman, Nwabueze Nich Izueke at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano while heading to China with 95 jumbo-sized wraps of cocaine weighing 1.589 kilograms buried in his stomach.
Its Director, Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi in a statement issued Sunday said Nwabueze was arrested on Saturday 31st January 2026 at the Kano airport during the outward clearance of passengers going to China via Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET940.
He said when taken for body scan, he tested positive for ingesting illicit drug and was promptly placed under excretion observation.
Babayemi added: “While under observation, the suspect who claims he’s into clothing and auto spare parts business in Lagos, expelled a total of 95 pellets of the class A drug in seven excretions.
“In his statement, he claimed he decided to engage in illicit drug trafficking to raise enough money to complete the country home he’s building in his village, Iwollo, Enugu state.”
Meanwhile a total of 627.7 kilograms of skunk, a strain of cannabis, were recovered from a makeshift warehouse within Fums Plaza in Kubwa, FCT.
Babafemi revealed that attempt by Ebube Okeke, Evans Ugwu, Mohammed Eze Arinze and Friday Michael to smuggle consignments of methamphetamine concealed in Mp3 speakers from Enugu to Abuja and Kaduna was on Friday 6th February foiled by NDLEA operatives in Abuja who intercepted the consignments in a bus.
He added that a follow up operation in Zuba, FCT led to the arrest of Ebube Okeke who is the owner of one of the parcels containing 173grams of meth, while the trio of Evans Ugwu, Mohammed Eze Arinze and Friday Michael were nabbed on Saturday 7th February in Kaduna when they showed up to collect the second consignment weighing 28grams of meth.
In a similar development, NDLEA operatives at Dan-anacha patrol point, Gassol local government area of Taraba state on Friday 6th February intercepted a suspect Yusuf Abubakar, 32, conveying packs of Hollandia Yogurt from Lagos heading to Mubi, Adamawa state.
Acting on intelligence, the NDLEA officers searched the yogurt packs, some of which were used to conceal wraps of white powdery substance that tested positive to methamphetamine weighing 1.8 kilograms.
In Oyo state, NDLEA officers on Thursday 5th February arrested a Beninoise, Shuaibu Abdulrahman, 29, at Ibudo-Igboho village, Sooro Kishi, where they recovered 149.6kgSkunk concealed in rice shafts.
Babafemi noted that in a separate operation in Ibadan, a suspect Adeniyi Adeola (a.k.a Prince) was nabbed at Foko, Agbeni market on Wednesday 4th February. Recovered from his truck marked BDJ 767 YC include: 10,820 ampoules of pentazocine injection; and 117,820 capsules of tramadol.