NDLEA seizes Australia-bound cocaine hidden face cream bottles in Lagos

…Arrests traditional chief priest, others in nationwide crackdown

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has intercepted 20 wraps of cocaine weighing 330 grams from a cargo shipment bound for Australia.

The cocaine parcels were cleverly concealed around the body of face cream containers at a Lagos port.

According to the NDLEA, the cocaine was recovered from a cargo shipment at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The agency also intercepted two containers at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex in Onne, Rivers State, yielding 338,200 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N1.1 billion in street value.

The NDLEA also arrested the traditional chief priest of the Igunuko shrine, Alpha beach Ajah Lekki, Bariu Aliu (alias Malo), after a three-month manhunt.

Aliu was wanted in connection with the recovery of 2,760kg of skunk at the shrine on October 25, 2024.

In Kano, a suspect, Habibu Ya’u, 23, was arrested during a raid on Gadar Tamburawa, Zaria road, where NDLEA officers seized 45 blocks of cannabis weighing 24.2kg and 40,800 pills of opioids, including tramadol.