Nigeria’s anti-narcotics agency has uncovered a clandestine laboratory producing synthetic cannabis, known locally as Colos, in the commercial capital Lagos, a discovery signaling the growing domestic production of high-potency drugs once imported into the country.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in a statement, said its officers raided a residential building in the Ajao Estate area of Lagos where the 30-year-old suspect, Stephen Kelechi Imoh, had converted part of the property into a drug manufacturing site.
Authorities seized 16.2 kilograms of freshly produced Colos, along with precursor chemicals including potassium carbonate, dibromobutane, and ADB-CHMNACA cannabinol used in synthetic drug production.
NDLEA officials said the operation followed months of surveillance after earlier seizures of similar locally made substances in March and May 2025, suggesting that domestic production of synthetic cannabis was on the rise.
In a related operation, agents arrested 28-year-old Afeez Salisu, known as “Malu,” in Lagos’s Mushin district with compressed blocks of Ghana Loud, another strain of cannabis, and bottles of Colorado, weighing over 16 kilograms in total.
A separate bust at Lagos’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport led to the arrest of 20-year-old music artist Godspower George Osahenrumwen, known by his stage name Steady Boy, who allegedly attempted to receive 140 bags (77kg) of Loud concealed in bathtub cartons shipped from New York. His manager, identified as Zion Osazee Omigie (alias Zee Money), remains at large.
The NDLEA also conducted a series of coordinated raids across the country, leading to thousands of illegal drug seizures.
