EXPOSED: NCS, Police, Others Escort Smuggled Goods, Pocket N4–6Billion Weekly
A network of Nigerian security operatives, including some personnel of the Army, Police, and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), is reportedly making between N4 billion and N6 billion every week through a massive smuggling ring that brings in rice, contraband goods, and vehicles through the Seme–Badagry axis and adjoining Idi Iroko border routes.
Multiple insiders within the Union of Pioneers Association of smugglers, a coalition of more than 3,000 local operatives and border-area indigenes, said that the leaders have used them for years as ground workers in the illicit trade but remain “the only ones not benefiting from a multi-billion-naira operation carried out in their own homeland.”
According to them, a syndicate, allegedly protected by influential officers across several security formations, controls the flow of contraband from Benin Republic into Lagos, with goods cleared after “settlement” with customs and protected by military escorts.
Sources accused a notorious smuggling coordinator, known widely of running what they described as a “mafia-style hierarchy”, of sidelining indigenous operators while expanding his influence through security backing.
“The leader has no vehicle, but he takes returns from every operation. His investment keeps growing while the real indigenes don’t have a single investment,” one union member told SaharaReporters.
The Union of Pioneers, divided internally into Team A and Team B, says it has spent over a year asking for recognition of a third operational group, Team C, which would give local members a fair share of the business they say is now dominated by non-indigenes and security–backed cartels.
But despite multiple meetings and interventions, including one allegedly involving a prominent Yoruba traditional ruler, security operatives have allegedly blocked the creation of the new team.
“They keep dilly-dallying. They don’t want Team C because it would reduce the money they make,” another union leader said.
Union members allege that soldiers from two major military formations in Badagry have been routinely deployed, not to protect Nigeria’s borders, but to escort trucks of contraband into Lagos.
One source said that as recently as Saturday, November 22, Army personnel were sighted supervising loading operations in the Seme–Badagry corridor after a clearance deal with some customs officers.
“The Army is supposed to protect Nigeria’s territorial integrity, but they are escorting smuggled rice, cars, and contraband. This thing is running into billions of naira,” a member alleged.
“The security operatives make between N4 million and N6 million weekly through the smuggling ring.”
Insiders identified senior officers across multiple formations as providing high-level protection for the network.
While border operations in Lagos are reportedly crippled, insiders say seven border points in Ogun State are fully operational, serving as alternative corridors for goods entering the country under questionable circumstances.
“Lagos is dead for business unless you are in the cartel. Ogun borders are booming. That is why the smuggling money is so big,” another insider said.
With December approaching, a period traditionally known for heightened smuggling activities, the Pioneers say they were summoned to a meeting earlier this week only to be told again that their long-requested Team C would not be approved.
Feeling deceived, they now accuse security operatives of colluding with the cartel to monopolise the “Christmas window,” when profits significantly spike.
Frustrated and angry, members of the Union say they are preparing to send a petition to National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, demanding an investigation into what they describe as a “billion-naira smuggling empire supported by uniformed personnel.”
They insist that the involvement of soldiers, customs officers, and police operatives in escorting contraband shows the depth of institutional compromise at the nation’s borders.
