The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has arrested a 38-year-old businesswoman Iwebema Ogechi Peace following the discovery of a large consignment of cocaine concealed in false bottom of her luggage while heading to Beijing, China, aboard a Qatar Airways flight through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja Lagos.
Iwebema who claims she travels to China to buy items for sale in Nigeria, was arrested on Sunday, June 21, 2026 at the departure hall of terminal 2 of the Lagos airport based on credible intelligence.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi said a search of her check-in luggage led to the discovery of four large parcels of cocaine concealed in false bottom professionally created in her bag.
The parcels of the class A drug found hidden in the bag have a combined weight of 7.5 kilograms.
In another major interdiction operation, efforts by operatives of two Special Operations Units of NDLEA tracking and monitoring a container laden with 195 big sacks of Canadian Loud, a strong strain of cannabis from Toronto, Canada, for over four weeks paid off on Wednesday, June 23, 2026 when a total of 4,959 kilograms of the illicit drug consignment worth N12, 397,500,000 in street value, were recovered from the container during a joint examination of the shipment by officers of the Apapa Strategic Command of the Agency, men of Customs Service, other security agencies and ports stakeholders at the Apapa ports complex, Lagos.
The large illicit drug consignment which was loaded into a 40ft container comprising a Ford and a Nissan vehicle came under NDLEA tracking and monitoring system since April 25, 2026 when it arrived Toronto, Canada via truck, Montreal via rail on April 29, Tanger Med Morocco on May 11,, loaded on another vessel on May 23, before arriving Tincan port Lagos on June 4, and discharged there June 5th before the container eventually left Tincan and arrived Apapa port on Monday, June 22, 2026.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives in FCT Abuja in a joint operation with their colleagues in Anambra have unraveled a syndicate which plants illicit drugs in the luggage of unsuspecting passengers in motor parks.
Their trick came to the fore when operatives in Abuja intercepted a consignment of methamphetamine in a Sienna bus coming from Nnewi Anambra State at Abaji, FCT on Saturday June 20, 2026.
Babafemi further explained that “during a search of the bus, a waybill package was recovered containing whitish substances suspected to be methamphetamine concealed inside a black nylon bag, which was also put into another sack of clothes with the phone number of the receiver written on it. A follow up operation conducted same day led to the arrest of the supposed receiver of the waybill Mrs. Gloria Peter at Utako motor park. She however vehemently denied knowledge and ownership of the package in her luggage.
” This led to a swift arrest of the loaders of the Sienna bus in Nnewi where one of them revealed that the drug package was put into the woman’s bag by him on the directive of the driver of the bus Abdurrazak Isah. His revelations made the driver to open up and mentioned one of his passengers Onyebuchi Victor Okoye as the actual owner of the drug.
” Onyebuchi was then picked up at Utako, FCT during another follow up operation. The illicit consignment weighed 467.7grams. “
