The arrested suspects, Aliocus Odife and Sam Blackborn. Credit: NDLEA.

BY FRONTLINE REPORTERS

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two Nigerians based in Europe for allegedly ingesting 200 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.46 kilogrammes while attempting to smuggle the illicit substance from Abuja to Paris, France.

The suspects, identified as Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn, were arrested on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, during the outward clearance of Air France flight AF 832 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. According to the NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, the men had returned to Nigeria for holidays before attempting to travel back to Europe with the drugs concealed in their stomachs.

Babafemi disclosed that Odife, who resides in France and works in a factory, arrived in Nigeria on October 21 for a short holiday. A body scan conducted during his departure clearance revealed foreign objects in his stomach. He subsequently confessed to ingesting 110 wraps of cocaine, weighing 1.901kg, which he excreted under observation. His co-traveller, Blackborn, also tested positive during a body scan and admitted to swallowing 90 wraps weighing 1.559kg, all of which were recovered.

In separate operations across the country, NDLEA operatives recovered 976kg of cannabis from two commercial buses in Lagos. In Oyo State, two suspects, Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47, were arrested while allegedly loading 554kg of cannabis into a truck along Idere Road, Igboora. In Kano, operatives seized 247,500 tablets of diazepam and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5 during a raid in the Tsamiya area of Gezawa, while two other suspects were arrested with 19,250 tramadol pills in Dorayi.

The agency also reported the arrest of a woman, Aisha Isah, with 266 rounds of live AK-47 ammunition along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway. In another operation along the Zaria-Kano Expressway, a 68-year-old man, Ifeanyi Egwolonwu, was arrested with 2,770 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 100 ampoules of diazepam injection, 11,000 diazepam tablets and 4,500 Exol-5 tablets.

Reacting to the arrests, NDLEA Chairman, Brig-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), warned Nigerians living abroad against using their foreign residency as a cover for drug trafficking. He commended operatives in the affected states for their efforts and urged them to sustain enforcement operations while intensifying public awareness campaigns under the agency’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) initiative.