NDLEA arrests Indian businessman, others over N3.9bn tramadol at Lagos airport

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested an Indian businessman, Gupta Ravi Kumar, alongside three Nigerian accomplices: Ogunlana Noah Olanrewaju, Olushola Idrees Kayode, and Bakare Korede Muheeb, over the seizure of 2,248,000 pills of tramadol valued at N3.9 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The opioids, packed in 114 cartons and disguised as multi-vitamins, were shipped from Delhi, India, and arrived aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight on Monday, September 8, 2025.

A team of NDLEA officers, who had placed the consignment under surveillance, intercepted two trucks attempting to move the consignment from the airport on Thursday, September 11, and arrested a clearing agent and two drivers. A follow-up operation the next day led to the arrest of Kumar when he attempted to take delivery of the drugs.

In a separate operation at the Terminal 2 departure gate of the Lagos airport on Sunday, September 7, NDLEA officers arrested a passenger, Onyeganochi Stanley Ifeanyi, travelling on a Qatar Airways flight to Doha, after discovering 900 grammes of skunk concealed in crayfish inside his luggage.

Onyeganochi, a first-time traveller, confessed that the bag was handed to him by a Qatar-based Nigerian, Ohadiegwu Anthony Uchenna, who was also at the airport. Uchenna was arrested immediately, and a subsequent search of his hotel room in Ajao Estate uncovered another 200 grammes of skunk. He admitted he had planned to recover the bag in Doha if Onyeganochi had passed through security undetected.

Meanwhile, at Tincan Port, Lagos, NDLEA operatives discovered 161 parcels of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis weighing 81.7kg, along with 1.2kg of hashish oil, concealed in a 40-foot container of spare parts and used cars imported from Montreal, Canada. The container was jointly examined on Tuesday, September 9, leading to the arrest of two suspects: John Ochigbo, 53, and Okeke Kingsley, 26.

Another 65kg consignment of Canadian Loud linked to the same shipment was tracked from the port to the Third Mainland Bridge, where NDLEA officers intercepted a Toyota Sienna transporting the drugs. The driver, Abubakar Ibrahim, 42, was arrested.

The agency said the series of seizures underscored its resolve to disrupt international and local drug trafficking networks.