By IDNN News Desk
Published April 27, 2025
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has made major breakthroughs in the war against drug trafficking, recovering illicit substances valued at ₦1.042 billion from a hotel in Lagos and intercepting over two million pills of tramadol in separate operations in Kano and Jigawa states.
According to a statement by the NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the Lagos operation targeted an 80-room hotel located at 16 Waziri Ibrahim Street, Victoria Island, known as “The Hook Hotel” or “Caesar Hotel and Lounge.”
Following hours of search between Friday, 25th and Saturday, 26th April 2025, agents uncovered 589 bags of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, weighing 417.3 kilograms.
Three suspects — Eze Ayitu, Ofuokwu Samuel, and Emmanuel Ameh — were arrested during the raid, while two others, Noble Philip and Kenneth, remain at large.
Assets suspected to be proceeds of illicit drug trade were also seized, including multiple vehicles and dozens of electronics such as 74 new television sets and 13 refrigerators.
In a parallel interdiction operation in Jigawa and Kano states, NDLEA officers intercepted a Toyota Sienna transporting opioids at Gumel town around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 23rd April.
Two suspects — Abba Ibrahim and Shuaibu Umar — were arrested with 200,000 pills of tramadol and 217,500 capsules of pregabalin.
Further intelligence led to the arrest of the primary supplier, Jamilu Muhammad, at his residence in Kano where a staggering 1,584,000 additional tramadol pills were discovered inside a Nissan 18-seater bus and hidden inside a room.
In total, over 2 million opioid pills were seized across the two northern states.
Separately, NDLEA operatives arrested three Ghanaian women in a cross-border trafficking case involving cocaine concealed inside body creams destined for Saudi Arabia.
Authorities describe these series of operations as one of the Agency’s most significant coordinated drug busts of 2025, underscoring the growing sophistication of narcotics networks across West Africa.
The Agency says investigations are ongoing, with more arrests expected.
