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Two Nigerian businessmen based in Europe have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for allegedly attempting to smuggle 200 wraps of cocaine to France after ingesting the drugs.
The suspects, identified as Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn, were arrested on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, during the outward clearance of an Air France flight AF 832 from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, to Paris.
The NDLEA said the suspects were intercepted after body scans revealed foreign objects in their stomachs.
They were subsequently placed under observation, during which they excreted 200 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.460 kilogrammes.
Odife, who reportedly lives in France and works in a factory, arrived in Nigeria on October 21 for a short holiday. He was arrested while attempting to return to France.
During interrogation, he reportedly admitted to swallowing 110 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.901 kilogrammes.
His co-traveller, Blackborn, was also arrested after his body scan returned a positive result. He confessed to ingesting 90 pellets of cocaine, which weighed 1.559 kilogrammes.
The arrests were among several operations carried out by the agency across the country, leading to the seizure of illicit drugs, ammunition and pharmaceutical substances.
In another operation, NDLEA operatives arrested a woman, Aisha Isah, with 266 rounds of live AK-47 ammunition during a patrol along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.
Similarly, a 68-year-old man, Ifeanyi Egwolonwu, was arrested at Gwargwaje, Zaria, along the Zaria-Kano Expressway, with 2,770 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 100 ampoules of diazepam injection, 11,000 diazepam tablets and 4,500 Exol-5 tablets.
In Lagos, operatives intercepted two vehicles conveying a combined 976 kilogrammes of skunk, a potent strain of cannabis.
The seizures included 537 kilogrammes recovered from a white Volkswagen LT 28 bus along Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja, on Sunday, October 25, and another 439 kilogrammes from a brown J5 bus along the Gbagada-Oshodi Expressway.
In Oyo State, two suspects, Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47, were arrested on October 29 while allegedly loading 554 kilogrammes of skunk into a Volvo truck along Idere Road, Igboora.
The operation followed an earlier raid targeting a suspected drug dealer identified as Omo Oba, who escaped arrest on October 25 after operatives seized 309.5 kilogrammes of cannabis linked to him.
Reacting to the arrests, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended officers involved in the operations.
Marwa described the arrest of the two Europe-based Nigerians as a warning to Nigerians who believe that living abroad could provide cover for drug trafficking.
He warned that officers at the country’s entry and exit points remained vigilant and that anyone risking their lives by ingesting illicit drugs for financial rewards would be apprehended.
The NDLEA chairman urged personnel to sustain the crackdown on drug cartels while intensifying public awareness campaigns against drug abuse across schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities.
