Hajj Drug Syndicate Busted: NDLEA Nabs Kingpins, Seizes N9.35bn Worth of Narcotics

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has dismantled a sophisticated criminal syndicate that used Hajj pilgrims as drug couriers to smuggle cocaine into Saudi Arabia, arresting three cartel leaders in a major operation in Kano State.

The operation followed the arrest of two pilgrims, Ibrahim Mustapha and Muhammad Shifado, on May 26 at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport. The suspects were intercepted during outbound clearance for an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Jeddah. A body scan confirmed that both had ingested cocaine.

Placed under excretion watch, each suspect excreted 45 wraps of cocaine—90 pellets in total—amounting to 1.04 kilograms.

“Investigations revealed they were working for a drug trafficking network specializing in smuggling drugs to Saudi Arabia,” said NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi.

Follow-up operations on May 27 and 28 led to the arrest of three syndicate leaders: Abubakar Muhammad, Abdulhakeem Muhammed Tijjani, and Muhammad Aji Shugaba.

Meanwhile, also at the Kano airport, NDLEA operatives arrested 60-year-old businessman Chinedu Leonard Okigbo on May 28 as he attempted to board a Qatar Airways flight to Iran. He was found to have ingested 65 wraps of cocaine, weighing 1.41 kilograms.

In a separate operation at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, NDLEA and customs officials uncovered 825,200 bottles of codeine-based syrup and trodol, alongside 5.1 million pills of tapentadol 225mg. The total street value: a staggering ₦9.35 billion.

The anti-drug agency also reported a series of other successful operations:

• In Kano, two men were intercepted along the Kano–Maiduguri highway with $900,000 in suspected counterfeit currency.

• In Adamawa, NDLEA agents discovered 390 blocks of compressed cannabis skunk (275.3 kg) abandoned in a Toyota Sienna on the Ngurore–Yola Road.

• In Ilorin, Kwara State, a well-known female drug dealer, Alhaja Mutiat Abdul-Fatai, was arrested on May 31. Opioids including tramadol, flunitrazepam, and codeine syrup were recovered from her home.

NDLEA Chairman and CEO, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), commended the agency’s regional commands and praised officers nationwide for their dedication to both drug supply reduction and demand reduction strategies.

“These achievements demonstrate our unrelenting fight against drug trafficking and abuse across Nigeria,” he said.