NDLEA Arrests Two Nigerians Returning To Europe With 200 Cocaine Pellets In Their Stomachs
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested two Europe-based Nigerian men at the Abuja airport after they allegedly swallowed 200 wraps of cocaine in a bid to traffic the drugs to France.
The suspects, Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn, were apprehended on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, while undergoing departure formalities for an Air France flight, AF 832, from Abuja to Paris.
The NDLEA said the suspects had ingested a total of 200 cocaine pellets weighing 3.460 kilogrammes.
The agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed in a statement on Sunday that the arrests followed suspicious observations by operatives, who subsequently subjected the men to body scans.
Odife, who reportedly lives in France and works in a factory, had arrived in Nigeria on October 21 for a holiday. However, he was intercepted while preparing to return to Europe.
During questioning, he reportedly admitted swallowing 110 cocaine pellets.
The NDLEA said he was placed under observation, during which he excreted all 110 wraps. Laboratory tests confirmed that the substances were cocaine, weighing 1.901 kilogrammes.
The second suspect, Blackborn, was also subjected to a body scan, which revealed foreign objects in his stomach.
He allegedly confessed to ingesting 90 wraps of cocaine and subsequently excreted all of them under observation. The recovered drugs weighed 1.559 kilogrammes.
The agency said the arrests brought the total quantity of cocaine recovered from the two suspects to 3.460 kilogrammes.
Beyond the Abuja airport arrests, the NDLEA also reported major drug interceptions in Lagos, Oyo and Kano states.
In Lagos, operatives seized 976 kilogrammes of skunk from two commercial buses on October 25. A white Volkswagen LT 28 bus conveying 537 kilogrammes was intercepted along Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja, while another 439 kilogrammes were recovered from a brown J5 bus along the Gbagada-Oshodi Expressway.
In Oyo State, Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47, were arrested on October 29 while allegedly loading 554 kilogrammes of skunk into a Volvo truck at Idere Road, Igboora.
The arrests were linked to an operation against a suspected drug dealer known as Omo Oba, who reportedly escaped during an earlier raid on October 25. During that operation, 309.5 kilogrammes of cannabis known as Ghanaian Loud were recovered.
In another operation in Kano State, NDLEA operatives raided a location in the Tsamiya area of Gezawa on October 26, recovering 247,500 tablets of diazepam weighing 57.7 kilogrammes and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5 weighing 38.7 kilogrammes.
Two more suspects were arrested in Dorayi on October 28 with 19,250 tablets of tramadol 225mg.
The agency reiterated its commitment to intensifying operations against drug traffickers and dismantling criminal networks involved in the illegal drug trade across Nigeria.
