Twenty months after a cocaine trafficking cartel led by a couple: Toheebat Dauda and Lookman Dauda was smashed by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) with multi-billion-naira worth of illicit drug recovered, another leader of the syndicate Shodunke Simbiat who went underground since May 2024 has been nabbed in her Lagos home where additional 23.5 kilogrammes of the class A drug were recovered from her children’s room.
According to a press statement by the spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi on Sunday, the kingpin Lookman and his queen Toheebat were arrested on Saturday 25th May 2024 by operatives of a special operations unit of NDLEA at Ibiye, along Lagos-Badagry expressway while attempting to cross the land border to deliver the consignment in Ghana.
Babafemi said at the point of their arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5 kilogrammes were found on them, with a swift follow up operation in their residence at Plot 24/25 OPIC extension, Petedo road, Agbara, Ogun state, leading to the recovery of additional eight blocks of the same drug weighing 10 kilogrammes, bringing the total weight of the consignment seized from the couple to 57.5 kilogrammes.
The spokesman, said determined to rein in every member of the syndicate, the NDLEA operatives continued with follow up intelligence and surveillance on the trans-border drug trafficking organisation until a 39-year-old female stash keeper Shodunke Simbiat was identified as a key member of the DTO, which elicited her being trailed to her 31 Onasanya street, Surulere, Lagos residence on Tuesday 9th December 2025.
Babafemi revealed that a thorough search of her home led to the discovery of blocks of cocaine weighing 23.5 kilogrammes concealed in a black suit case recovered from her children’s room, a drug consignment worth over N5billion in street value that she subsequently admitted ownership of.
In other clampdowns, the NDLEA operatives attached to terminal II departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos last Thursday intercepted a 36-year-old businessman Nwanwene Destiny with a total of 1,020 pills of tramadol 225mg and tapentadol 200mg concealed in his luggage while attempting to board a Royal Air-Maroc flight to Milan, Italy where he is based. He claimed the successful trafficking of the opioids to Italy would have fetched him €200 from the person he was to deliver them to.
At the Seme border in Badagry area of Lagos, a 48-year-old Beninoise Leocardi Josu was last Thursday arrested by NDLEA officers while attempting to cross into Nigeria with 3,400 tablets of tramadol 225mg, even as a suspect Abdullahi Adamu, 30, was nabbed along Okene/Lokoja highway with 28.4 kilogrammes skunk, a strain of cannabis and Colorado, a synthetic cannabis last Friday.
In Oyo state, NDLEA operatives last Friday recovered 125,000 capsules of tramadol and 1,800 ampoules of pentazocine injection in a Toyota Hiace bus marked XD 592 AWL along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, while two suspects: Ogunlade Kazeem, 54, and Adeleke Ismail, 30, were arrested with 185.4 kilogrammes of skunk at Challenge motor park, Ibadan, last Wednesday.
Babafemi disclosed that a total of 405 kilogrammes skunk was seized when NDLEA operatives raided Owena/Ijesha forest in Osun state where a suspect Charles James, 45, was nabbed last Friday, while another suspect Jamilu Zakari, 42, was arrested with 14,960 pills of tramadol 225mg at tollgate, along Abuja-Kaduna highway same day. The consignment of opioids was concealed in two kolanut sacks (huhun goro) coming from Abuja to Gusau, Zamfara state.
The spokesman said across all commands and formations of the agency nationwide, NDLEA officers continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities in schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week.
Meantime, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd), while commending the officers and men of the Special Operations Unit, MMIA, Seme, Kogi, Kaduna, Oyo and Osun commands for the arrests, seizures and their dexterity, enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to remain extra vigilant during the festive season and ensure that highest standard of professionalism is maintained in all their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities all through the period and beyond.
Michael Olugbode
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