At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has seized shipments of Captagon, commonly referred to as the “Jihadi drug”, and millions of opioid pills valued at more than N6.2 billion.
The Captagon shipment was seized at the Lagos airport on Saturday, August 22, 2026, after 49-year-old cross-border kingpin Akinbile Kazeem Aikins was arrested after arriving from Accra, Ghana, on an African World Airlines flight, according to a statement released on Sunday by NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
During a search of his box of “Ghana Soap”, a Ghanaian bathing soap, 47,200 illegal amphetamine pills worth over N1.5 billion were found hidden inside blocks of soap.
The NDLEA first discovered captagon in Nigeria in September 2021 in the Apapa Port in Lagos. Captagon is infamously known as the “Jihadi drug” due to its role in financing extremist activities in conflict areas.
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Aikins stated he was supposed to deliver the shipment in the North after his arrest.
No fewer than 3,900,030 tablets of Tapentadol 250mg and Tramaking 225mg, with a combined gross weight of 2,787.40 kilograms and a street value of more than N4.6 billion, were recovered from four abandoned consignments at the MMIA import shed in another successful interdiction operation at the Lagos airport.
Three of the consignments, comprising 900,000 tablets of Tramaking weighing 815.40kg, arrived aboard RwandAir flights from Bangladesh, while the fourth, comprising 3,000,030 tablets of Tapentadol weighing 1,972kg, arrived on Qatar Airways from Amsterdam.
The shipments, which had been placed under close watch after no one showed up to claim them, were formally retrieved following a joint examination by NDLEA officers, Customs and other stakeholders on Friday, August 28.
Meanwhile, commands and formations of the agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities, among others, over the past week.
The activities included WADA enlightenment lectures for students and staff of Markaz Littahfizul Quran Wal Islamiyyat, Dadin Kowa, Gombe State; Zangina Islamiyyah Alasawa Kurna, Ungogo Local Government Area, Kano State; and youths at the adolescent lifestyle programme organised by NNPCL in Benin City, Edo State.
