Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has dismantled a social-media-based drug distribution network in Lagos after uncovering cannabis and other illicit substances disguised as imported Christmas cookies.
Two alleged masterminds were arrested during a raid on their hideout in the Lekki area, the agency said on Sunday.
According to the NDLEA, the syndicate, operating mainly through a WhatsApp platform, used branded sachets designed to resemble festive snacks to package Canadian “Loud”, a potent strain of cannabis.
Acting on intelligence, officers raided an apartment in Lekki and recovered five kilogrammes of the drug along with large quantities of the counterfeit packaging.
In a separate Lagos operation, NDLEA personnel detained a suspected drug trafficker, 38-year-old Philip Ucheka, after he allegedly took delivery of 110 pouches of Canadian Loud weighing 55.6 kilogrammes in the Mushin district.
Three delivery vehicles were seized during the arrest. The following day, officers intercepted 100 grammes of cannabis concealed inside a teddy bear imported from Thailand, while a different courier facility yielded 548 tramadol capsules hidden in bottles labelled as Vitamin C and magnesium bound for the United Kingdom.
Authorities carried out further arrests in multiple states. On the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, a 55-year-old man, Wasiu Kareem, was detained on 29 November with thousands of opioid products, including pentazocine ampoules, codeine syrup, Co-codamol tablets and tramadol capsules.
Other seizures were reported in Ondo, Kogi, Lagos (Seme border), Kano, Bauchi and along the Abuja-Jos highway.
