Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 25-year-old newlywed businessman at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, for alleged drug trafficking.

The suspect was intercepted at the departure hall of the airport on Thursday, September 25, 2026, while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Portugal via Addis Ababa.

In a statement on Sunday, the NDLEA said the suspect had ingested 72 wraps of cocaine and was placed under excretion observation after his arrest. He later excreted all the wraps.

According to the agency, the suspect told investigators he was previously into car decoration business at the Trade Fair Complex in Ojo, Lagos, before relocating to Portugal in May 2023. He said he returned to Nigeria recently and got married on September 13, 2026, and allegedly resorted to drug trafficking to offset his wedding expenses.

In a related operation, NDLEA operatives at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, seized 2,550,000 pills of Tramaking 225mg, Tramaking 250mg and Royal Tapentadol 250mg.

The agency said the seizure, which weighed 1,640.55 kilogrammes, was made on Tuesday, September 22, after a joint examination of three consignments imported from India and Bangladesh through Qatar Airways, RwandAir and Ethiopian Airlines.

The NDLEA described it as one of its biggest opioid hauls this year.

In Bauchi State, operatives arrested two suspects, aged 35 and 45, along the Maiduguri bypass with 300 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 262.5 kilogrammes, concealed in a false compartment of a truck.

In Edo State, officers supported by soldiers destroyed two cannabis farms at Eko Camp, Ilushi, with an estimated yield of 1,360.23 kilogrammes.

In Lagos, two women, aged 36 and 40, were arrested on Saturday, September 26, during a raid on Anifowoshe Street, Mushin, where 3.4 kilogrammes of skunk was recovered. On the same day, a 58-year-old man was intercepted at Ebute-Ero motor park with 5.920 kilogrammes of skunk, 2,400 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 8,400 tablets of nitrazepam and 40,000 pills of tramadol.

In Oyo State, two Togolese nationals, aged 35 and 33, were arrested along Iganna-Ilero road, Iganna, with 305.6 kilogrammes of skunk allegedly sourced from Ghana and being moved in two pick-up vans.

At the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, operatives also arrested five suspects with 420 cartons of nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas, weighing 1,688.4 kilogrammes.

Meanwhile, the agency said its commands across the country sustained War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities in Oyo, Edo, Gombe and Kano States, while the Delta Ports Command paid an advocacy visit to the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatshe III.

NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended the officers involved and urged them to sustain the agency’s balanced approach to drug control.