Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a cocaine shipment from Brazil, detaining the vessel MV Nord Bosporus and its 20-member Filipino crew at the Apapa seaport in Lagos, the country’s commercial city.
The consignment, discovered on Sunday, November 16, 2025, contained 20 kilograms of Class A cocaine hidden beneath the ship’s cargo.
NDLEA officers arrested the ship’s master, Captain Quino Eugene Corpus, along with 19 other crew members, and subsequently filed a motion for their detention before the Federal High Court in Lagos.
Justice Musa Kakaki granted the application on Thursday, November 20, authorizing an initial 14-day detention of the vessel and all crew members for further investigation.
Preliminary investigations revealed that this was the vessel’s first visit to Nigeria and Africa, having previously transported coal between Brazil and Colombia. Captain Corpus had only been with the ship for three months.
The seizure comes six months after a similar incident in which 10 Thai sailors were convicted and fined $4.3 million for smuggling 32.9 kilograms of cocaine into Nigeria via the Apapa seaport.
The NDLEA emphasized that these operations are part of a sustained effort to disrupt transnational drug trafficking networks.
