Illicit drugs worth ₦1.042 billion have been seized by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) during a raid on a hotel in the Victoria Island area of Lagos State.
Three individuals have been arrested in connection with the recovered drugs, while the NDLEA is on the trail of other suspects.
The Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who confirmed the raid in a statement signed by him on Sunday, stated that the hotel was being used as a front for the distribution of Canadian Loud.
Babafemi, in the statement, said, “An 80-room newly built hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, used as a front for distributing illicit substances, has been raided by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), who, after hours of combing through the premises, recovered 589 bags of Canadian Loud, a strong strain of cannabis with a total weight of 417.3 kilograms, worth One Billion Forty-Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Naira (₦1,042,500,000) in street value.
“At least three suspects—Eze Ayitu, Ofuokwu Samuel, and Emmanuel Ameh—were arrested during the operation at the five-storey hotel building between Friday, 25 April, and Saturday, 26 April 2025, while two other suspects, Noble Philip and his associate Kenneth, remain at large.”
He also stated: “Items suspected to be proceeds of illicit drug trade recovered from the premises housing The Hook Hotel, also known as Caesar Hotel and Caesar Lounge, located at 16 Waziri Ibrahim Street, off Elsie Femi Pearse Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, include:
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A Toyota Prado Land Cruiser Jeep (Lagos AKD 472 OZ)
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A Toyota Sienna vehicle (Lagos KJA 79 HJ)
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A Volkswagen delivery van (Lagos AAA 525 JE)
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A Kia Cerato car (Lagos BDG 860 GQ)
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A Grand Caravan Dodge (Lagos APP 847 YF)
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74 new TV sets
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10 used TV sets
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13 refrigerators among other items.”
In another major interception in Jigawa State, followed by a subsequent operation in Kano, NDLEA operatives, acting on intelligence on Wednesday, 23 April, seized consignments of opioids being transported from Kano to Niger Republic and Yobe State via Jigawa.
The psychoactive substances were being transported in a Toyota Sienna vehicle (marked ABJ 182 NW) at about 2:30 am along Kano-Ringim Road in Gumel town when anti-narcotic officers on patrol intercepted the vehicle, arresting two suspects: Abba Ibrahim, 28, and Shuaibu Umar, 29.
Recovered from the vehicle were 200,000 250 mg tramadol pills and 217,500 pregabalin capsules.
A swift follow-up operation in Kano led to the arrest of the supplier, 41-year-old Jamilu Muhammad, at his residence in Mil Tara, Layin Technical area of Kano. An additional 1,584,000 tramadol 250mg pills, stored inside a Nissan 18-seater bus (marked DAL 372 XA) and a room in his house, were discovered and evacuated.
This brings the total number of recovered opioid pills to 2,001,500.
Barely a week after NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) uncovered 20 parcels of cocaine concealed inside religious books destined for Saudi Arabia at a logistics company in Lagos, operatives intercepted another shipment of 46 wraps of cocaine weighing 547 grams, hidden inside body cream, bound for the Middle East.
The seizure occurred on Wednesday, 23 April, at a courier firm in Lagos. Another consignment intercepted the same day included 1.8 kg of pentazocine injection and 60 grams of bromazepam tablets, destined for Canada.
At the Seme border area of Badagry, Lagos, three Ghanaian women were arrested at the Gbaji checkpoint by NDLEA operatives on Sunday, 20 April, while attempting to smuggle a combined 4.8 kilograms of Ghana Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, into Nigeria.
The arrested suspects include Haziza Zubairu, 42; Samirat Mustapha, 43; and Jamila Salifu, 26.
In Kano, a 60-year-old grandmother, Safiya Shamsu, was arrested on Friday, 25 April, in the Samegu area of Kumbotso LGA with 5.6 kg of skunk, a potent strain of cannabis. Additionally, another suspect, Muntari Labaran, 35, was taken into custody following the seizure of 100 litres of codeine syrup from him in the Yelwa area of Dala LGA.
A total of 3,814.9 kg of skunk was destroyed on two farms in Ugbodu community, Ovia North East LGA, Edo State, on Thursday, 24 April, when NDLEA operatives raided the plantations. Three suspects—Samuel Samson, 26; Daniel Peter, 20; and Abel Edah, 31—were arrested during the operation.
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