NDLEA Grabs 5 Drug Suspects in Coordinated Kano Raid
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have dismantled a drug trafficking syndicate that sponsors intending Hajj pilgrims as drug couriers to Saudi Arabia, following the arrest of key members in Kano.
The operation followed the arrest of two intending pilgrims at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) on Monday, May 26, 2025. The suspects, Ibrahim Umar Mustapha and Muhammad Siraj Shifado, were apprehended during the outward clearance for an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Jeddah.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, said: “The interdiction of the intending pilgrims at the NDLEA final screening point at the Kano airport was based on credible intelligence. When taken for scanning, the results confirmed ingestion of illicit substances.”
Placed under excretion observation, both suspects excreted 45 wraps of cocaine each, totaling 90 pellets and weighing 1.04 kilograms.
This led to the arrest of the suspected drug network leaders—Abubakar Muhammad, Abdulhakeem Muhammed Tijjani, and Muhammad Aji Shugaba—on Tuesday, May 27, and Wednesday, May 28, during a coordinated operation in Kano.
“Investigation soon unraveled their sponsors as leaders of a notorious drug trafficking network, which specializes in trafficking illicit drugs to Saudi Arabia,” Babafemi noted.
In a separate operation at the Kano airport, NDLEA operatives arrested a 60-year-old businessman, Chinedu Leonard Okigbo, while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Iran. He was found to have ingested illicit substances and later excreted 65 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.41 kilograms.
At the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, a joint security operation uncovered 825,200 bottles of codeine-based syrup and 5.1 million pills of opioids, particularly tapentadol 225mg. The drugs had a combined estimated street value of ₦9.346 billion.
In Kano, two suspects—Abubakar Hussein (42) and Sahabi Adamu (53)—were arrested along the Kano–Maiduguri road on Friday, May 30, with \$900,000 in suspected counterfeit cash. NDLEA said the suspects and the exhibits would be handed over to the appropriate agency for further investigation.
Also, on Tuesday, May 27, in Adamawa State, NDLEA officers recovered 390 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 275.3 kilograms from an abandoned Toyota Sienna vehicle along the Ngurore–Yola road.
In Kwara State, a woman identified as Alhaja Mutiat Abdul-Fatai was arrested at Oja Oba, Ilorin, on Saturday, May 31, with various quantities of opioids, including tramadol, flunitrazepam, and codeine syrup.
NDLEA Chairman Mohamed Buba Marwa said: “I commend the officers and men of the MAKIA, PHPC, Kano, Kwara, and Adamawa Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week. Their efforts highlight the Agency’s commitment to a fair balance between drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction.”
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