The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has dismantled another major cocaine trafficking network in Lagos with the arrest of a female drug kingpin who hid 23.50 kilograms of cocaine inside her children’s room, barely twenty months after a related cartel was crushed in the South-West.
In a statement on Sunday by the Agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the suspect, Shodunke Yetunde Simbiat, had gone underground since May 2024 following the arrest of key cartel leaders linked to the syndicate.
Babafemi said Simbiat, identified as a critical stash keeper for the trans-border drug trafficking organisation, was tracked through sustained intelligence and surveillance to her residence at Onasanya Street, Surulere, Lagos, where NDLEA operatives struck on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.
“A thorough search of her apartment led to the recovery of 23.50kg of cocaine concealed in a black suitcase kept inside her children’s room. The suspect admitted ownership of the consignment, estimated to be worth over ₦5 billion in street value,” the statement said.
The arrest is directly linked to the earlier bust of a cocaine cartel led by Bolanle Lookman Dauda and Olayinka Toheebat Dauda, who were apprehended in May 2024 while attempting to traffic drugs across the Lagos–Badagry border to Ghana. At the time, NDLEA recovered 57.5kg of cocaine from the couple across operations in Lagos and Ogun States.
In another major interception, Babafemi disclosed that NDLEA officers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, arrested a 36-year-old businessman, Nwanwene Robinson Destiny, at Terminal II while attempting to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Milan, Italy.
He was found with 1,020 pills of tramadol and tapentadol concealed in his luggage and allegedly confessed that he stood to earn €200 for successfully delivering the opioids abroad.
Elsewhere, NDLEA operatives at the Seme border arrested a 48-year-old Beninoise national, Leocardi Josu, with 3,400 tramadol tablets, while a separate operation along the Okene–Lokoja highway led to the seizure of 28.4kg of skunk and synthetic cannabis from a suspect.
The anti-narcotics agency also recorded significant seizures in Oyo, Osun and Kaduna States, including 125,000 tramadol capsules, 1,800 ampoules of pentazocine injection, and over 400kg of cannabis, as nationwide raids tightened the noose on drug traffickers.
Babafemi added that the agency simultaneously intensified its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns across schools, transport unions and communities nationwide.
Commending officers involved in the operations, the NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), urged personnel to remain vigilant during the festive season and sustain the highest standards of professionalism in both drug supply and demand reduction efforts.
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