NDLEA Intercepts Chinese Grandmother with Large Illicit Drug Consignment at Lagos Airport

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 63-year-old Chinese grandmother, Ting Hung Kiong, following her attempt to smuggle a large consignment of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, into Nigeria.

The Chinese national, who is naturalised in Malaysia, was arrested on May 17, 2026, upon her arrival in Nigeria from Thailand via Dubai, UAE, aboard an Emirates Airline flight. She was intercepted by NDLEA operatives attached to the Terminal 2 Arrival Hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

A statement by the NDLEA spokesperson, Mr Femi Babafemi, on Sunday said investigations revealed that the suspect travelled from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria via the UAE with two large travel boxes containing the synthetic cannabis consignment weighing 31.0 kilograms.

During an interview, the 63-year-old suspect, who claimed to work as a caregiver in Malaysia, stated that her daughter sponsored her trip from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria. She further disclosed that she spent two weeks in Thailand before she was handed the illicit consignment at the airport to deliver in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the statement said another major illicit drug consignment was recovered at the import shed of the Lagos airport. Following close monitoring of the shipment by NDLEA operatives since its arrival from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight, the 29 large cartons containing 1.8 million tablets of Tapentadol 250mg, worth ₦2,190,852,000, were eventually handed over to the NDLEA by the Nigeria Customs Service on Friday.

In another successful interdiction operation, NDLEA operatives at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu State, on May 20, intercepted a suspect, Onyeka Valentine Emeka, during the inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sierra Leone via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When placed under observation, the suspect excreted a total of 185.36 grams of cocaine.

At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, a 29-year-old building engineer, Babatunde Prosper Afekhide, was arrested by NDLEA operatives on May 21 while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Abuja via Addis Ababa to Milan Malpensa, Italy. A search of his luggage led to the recovery of 10,280 pills of Tramaking 225mg, Tramadol 200mg, and Tapentadol 250mg. The opioids were concealed with foil paper and hidden inside a carton in a suitcase, apparently to evade detection.

In another operation at a courier company in Lagos, NDLEA operatives intercepted 1,174 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) concealed in a bicycle luggage carrier bound for the Netherlands; 66 pills of Tramadol 225mg hidden in a soap container destined for the United States; and 18 tablets of Tramadol 225mg concealed in a body cream container heading to the United Kingdom.

In Edo State, NDLEA operatives, acting on intelligence, raided the Igwe community in Owan East Local Government Area, where a total of 59 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 489kg and cannabis seeds weighing 9kg were recovered.

Similarly, a suspect, Isah Sani, was arrested with 196,000 pills of Exol-5 on May 20 along the Zaria–Kano Road in Kano State, while NDLEA officers at the Seme border in the Badagry area of Lagos recovered 59kg of skunk from a warehouse in Mowo, Badagry, on May 19.

Babafemi said another operational success was recorded in Ekiti State, where NDLEA operatives on Saturday raided a warehouse located at N/56, Ikoyi community, Ikole-Ekiti, and recovered 1,116 kilograms of skunk. A 54-year-old suspect, Ogundana Adebayo Julius, was arrested in connection with the seizure.

With the same zeal, commands and formations of the agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces, and communities, among others, in the past week.

While commending officers and men of the various commands, as well as those of DOGI, for the arrests and seizures, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa, noted that their drug supply reduction efforts were balanced with WADA sensitisation activities and charged them and their compatriots across the country to continue raising the operational bar.