Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have successfully dismantled two major drug cartels behind six different consignments of cocaine concealed in walls of stainless cups, body cream, and hair gel containers.
NDLEA said that the intelligence-led operations, which lasted over three weeks across Lagos, led to the arrest of five suspects and ultimately the arrowhead of the syndicate, Alhaji Hammed Taofeek Ode, who parades as a businessman and real estate developer.
Femi Babafemi, director of media and advocacy at NDLEA headquarters in Abuja, announced this in a statement on Sunday.
Babafemi said the beginning of the end of the criminal syndicate’s operations started on 16th September 2025 when NDLEA operatives at the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos, intercepted 174 parcels of cocaine weighing 13.40 kilograms concealed in walls of cocoa butter body cream containers, with a cargo agent promptly arrested.
He disclosed that further investigations revealed Alhaji Hammed Taofeek Ode as the mastermind of the shipment.
Babafemi said after weeks of intelligence, it was established that the drug baron had reported a dispute at the Zone 2 Headquarters of the Police in Lagos, after which the Agency sought the cooperation of the police to get the suspect into custody.
During his preliminary interview, Alhaji Hammed Ode admitted ownership of the consignment, which he claimed he bought for over N150 million. Following his return from the United Kingdom in 2024, he claimed to be a businessman and estate developer. He had lived for over 27 years in many European countries, including Austria, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, before settling in the UK.
In like manner, five other desperate attempts by another criminal syndicate to export cocaine consignments to the United Kingdom were also thwarted by operatives of the MMIA Strategic Command of NDLEA. The unravelling of the gang started on 26th September following the seizure of 2.10kg of cocaine concealed in the walls of hair cream containers at the export shed of the Lagos airport.
The apprehension of a cargo agent led to the arrest of the consignor, Smith David Korede, a furniture maker, on Tuesday 30th September at his 3 Arowojobe Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos base, where another consignment of 1.40kg of cocaine meant for export to the UK was recovered from him. The same day, another consignment of 1.00kg of cocaine with a similar mode of concealment, also going to the UK, was intercepted at the export shed of the airport. The cargo agent arrested in connection with the 1.00kg cocaine also identified Smith David Korede as the consignor, bringing to three the number of seized cocaine consignments linked to the suspect.
Two other cocaine-laden consignments going to the UK were also intercepted by NDLEA operatives at the export shed of the MMIA on Thursday 2nd October. Two suspects, Ogunbiyi Oluseye Taiwo and Popoola Francis Olumuyiwa, linked to the seizures, were promptly arrested. One of the consignments contained crayfish and 12 pieces of stainless cups used to conceal 1.00kg of cocaine, while the second consignment also contained crayfish and 36 containers of hair cream used to conceal 1.60kg of cocaine.
The bid by another criminal gang to smuggle into Lagos 6.3 kilograms of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis, concealed in bedsheets and hibiscus flower from Thailand was equally thwarted by NDLEA operatives attached to some courier companies, while a joint operation between NDLEA officers and Customs Service personnel at a checkpoint along Danbatta-Daura road, Kano, on Thursday 2nd October led to the arrest of 38-year-old Sa’adu Ali and seizure of 290,450 pills of tramadol 250mg and pregabalin capsules.
In Lagos, a notorious drug dealer, John Igbe, operating under the nickname “SammyBless” to distribute illicit drugs in the Lekki and Ajah axis, was arrested on Tuesday 30th September arrested at Admiralty Road, Lekki. At the time of his arrest, 550 grams of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis, packaged in retail plastic cups, were recovered from him. Three other suspects, Idris Lukman, Fuad Abdulsalam, and Mobolaji James, were nabbed the same day in the Mushin area of the state, with 109kg of skunk, 20 bottles of codeine syrup, and 2kg of nitrous oxide seized from them. At the Trade Fair Complex, Alaba area of the state, 3,700 bottles of codeine syrup and 550,000 caplets of expired 225mg diclofenac were recovered.
While a total of 27,700 pills of tramadol 100mg/225mg were seized from a suspect, Salisu Abubakar, 25, at Bode Saadu, Morro LGA, Kwara State on Monday 29th September, Blessing Ovaka, 50, was caught with 498.5kg of skunk at Kudandan, Chukun LGA, Kaduna, the same day, just as Dahiru Salisu, 27, was arrested in possession of 34,180 capsules of tramadol at Gwargwaje along Kaduna-Zaria road on Thursday 2nd October.
In Ogun State, NDLEA operatives on Monday 29th September raided Isheri, Obafemi Owode LGA, where a suspect, Abubakar Audu, was arrested with 112kg of skunk and 16 grams of tramadol. Three suspects, Chuimieze Shedrack, 28; Sunday John, 25; and Solomon Okopko, 27, were nabbed by NDLEA officers on Thursday 2nd October at Owena/Ijesha Forest Reserve, Osun State, where they destroyed 14,000kg of skunk on 5.6 hectares of cannabis plantation and recovered 142kg of the same psychoactive substance.