The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency intercepted a consignment of Captagon in Kwara State on Tuesday, 21 April 2026, during a patrol along Bode Saadu road. Operatives searched a passenger, 33-year-old Nasiru Mu'azu, and recovered 10,000 pills of Captagon and nine packets of Tapentadol 250mg. The drug, which has a street value of $25 per pill, is linked to militias including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, according to NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi. On Friday, 24 April, at the same location, officers stopped a trailer marked RMY-70XA and found 155,900 capsules of Tramadol, 6,000 ampoules of Tramadol injection, 3,000 Co-Codamol tablets, and 9,000 Bromazepam tablets hidden in a false compartment. A 24-year-old suspect, Aminu Isah, was arrested. On the same day as the first Kwara seizure, 21 April, NDLEA operatives in Oyo State intercepted a bus at Akinyele on the Ibadan–Oyo Expressway. A 33-year-old passenger, Eze Prince Emeka, a businessman from Sokoto, underwent a body scan that revealed he had ingested illicit substances. He later excreted 45 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.043 kilograms over three sessions. The agency said he planned to re-ingest the drugs after resting in Sokoto for transit through Algeria to Europe. On Saturday, 25 April, in Edo State, officers seized 1,196,000 pharmaceutical opioid pills from a truck heading to Onitsha and arrested Osagie Igbinibo, 43, and Omijie Malik, 44. On the same day in Lagos, 40-year-old Rasheed Ibuowo was arrested at Mile 2 Expressway with 810 kilograms of Arizona cannabis. In Bauchi State, Muktar Bello, 35, was arrested on 22 April with 288 blocks of skunk weighing 154.5 kilograms. In Ekiti State, 466.8 kilograms of skunk were recovered from the home of 56-year-old Layit John Matthew in Isinbode-Ekiti. The drugs were destined for Yola, Adamawa State. About 20,000 kilograms of cannabis were destroyed on eight hectares in Uyanga community, Akamkpa LGA, Cross River State, on 25 April.
The NDLEA reports a suspect planned to re-ingest cocaine pellets after resting in Sokoto, exposing a loophole in interdiction tactics despite advanced detection methods. This method of drug trafficking via internal concealment and staged excretion undermines current checkpoint operations. If operatives rely on one-time scans and short-term observation, traffickers can adapt by timing their movements around surveillance windows. The agency's focus on seizures does not address the operational gaps that allow such journeys to be planned in the first place.
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