Cocaine concealed in okporoko bound for India intercepted in Lagos

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has intercepted a shipment of cocaine concealed in imported dry stockfish heads and arrested a suspected member of an international drug trafficking network.

In a statement on Sunday, the agency’s director of media and advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said the seizure followed intelligence on cross-border criminal activity, prompting a coordinated operation in Lagos.

Operatives of the agency’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport strategic command recovered 237 wraps of cocaine, weighing 5.80kg, hidden inside stockfish heads—locally known as okporoko—in three jumbo bags.

The consignment, Babafemi said, was found on 19 March in the Ojo area of Lagos and was allegedly being prepared for export to Delhi, India. A 36-year-old suspect, Akputa Dickson Ejike, was arrested in connection with the seizure.

In a separate operation on 25 March, NDLEA officers at a courier facility in Lagos intercepted two consignments bound for the United Kingdom.

One shipment contained 1.9kg of methamphetamine concealed in automobile filters, while the other included 40 ampoules of morphine sulphate and nine ampoules of fentanyl.

The agency also arrested a suspected drug baron, Omolade Abigail Jolayemi, 46, known as “Iya Ghana”, during a raid at her residence in Yaba, where 135 blocks of cannabis strain known as Ghana Loud, weighing 76.30kg, were recovered.

Another suspect, Anayo Lucky Ohabiro, 39, was arrested in Surulere with 78 blocks of the same substance weighing 41kg.

Babafemi said enforcement operations extended beyond Lagos. In Ekiti state, an 80-year-old suspect, Oke Samuel, was arrested along Erinmo Road in Efon-Alaaye with 2.2kg of skunk and methamphetamine. In neighbouring Ondo state, operatives recovered 894.72kg of skunk from an uncompleted building and arrested a suspect.

Further seizures were recorded in Benue, Edo and Taraba states, including cannabis concealed in animal feed and consignments of codeine-based syrup, with multiple arrests made.

The agency said its War Against Drug Abuse campaign also continued across the country, with sensitisation programmes held in schools in Cross River, Adamawa, Oyo, Kano and Lagos states.

Babafemi commended officers involved in the operations and said the agency remained committed to tackling both the supply and demand sides of drug abuse.