Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency says a week of operations across Lagos, Edo, Niger, Delta, Ondo, Gombe and Imo states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, recovered or destroyed more than 1.3 million pills and capsules of tramadol and other opioids and about 6,000 kilograms of cannabis. The agency placed the combined street value above ₦3.4 billion in a statement issued from Abuja on Sunday, September 20.
What the agency says it recovered
That ₦3.4 billion figure is NDLEA’s estimate, not an independently audited market valuation or a court finding. The figures also combine different operations, dates and types of enforcement activity: some consignments were intercepted in transit, some were recovered during arrests, and 5,000 kilograms were reported destroyed at a cannabis farm in Ondo State.
The largest single consignment described in the statement was 1,200 parcels of cannabis weighing 603.75 kilograms. NDLEA valued it at ₦1.811 billion and said it arrived at Tin-Can Island Port in Lagos inside a 40-foot container shipped from Montreal on September 12.
According to the agency, officers placed the container under surveillance and joined the Nigeria Customs Service and other agencies for a physical examination on September 16. The parcels were said to be inside 31 black bags carried in two Toyota Sienna vehicles within the container. Channels Television separately reported the discovery from NDLEA’s statement and photographs.
Tin-Can container and the Asaba arrest
In Delta State, NDLEA said it arrested a 49-year-old man and a 39-year-old alleged accomplice along the Benin–Onitsha Expressway in Asaba on September 16 after finding 292.48 kilograms of cannabis in a silver Toyota Sienna. The agency alleges that the older suspect used a false name and forged police identification to pass checkpoints while transporting drugs.
The impersonation claim is an allegation by investigators. The public statement does not record a conviction, and the people named by the agency are entitled to the presumption of innocence unless a court finds them guilty. It also does not say that the Nigeria Police Force had completed a separate authentication of the disputed identity card.
On the Abaji–Abuja Highway, NDLEA said two men were arrested on September 18 with more than 1.1 million tablets and capsules, codeine syrup, methamphetamine and Exol tablets packed in eight sacks. The agency said the consignment was moving from Onitsha, Anambra State, toward Mararaba in Nasarawa State.
Operations stretched across several corridors
A separate patrol at Chachi in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger State led to three arrests on September 15. NDLEA reported finding two locally fabricated AK-47-style rifles, a locally made pistol, magazines and nine rounds of ammunition in a travel bag. The statement did not announce any court charge or explain whether the firearms allegation had been transferred to another security agency.
Other seizures listed by the agency included 48.9 thousand tramadol pills in Surulere, Lagos; 998.38 kilograms of nitrous oxide at Apongbon; 154,480 tramadol capsules in Gombe; 43.85 kilograms of cannabis on the Owerri–Onitsha Road; and cannabis and methamphetamine at an auto-repair workshop on Agbor Road in Benin City. Those quantities are agency-reported figures and may be tested or contested during prosecution.
In Ondo State, NDLEA said four people were arrested during the destruction of a two-hectare cannabis farm in Ita-Ogbolu forest on September 15, with 48 kilograms of fresh and dried cannabis retained for prosecution. This is why the headline figure should not be read as 6,000 kilograms of packaged drugs entering retail circulation: it includes plants destroyed at the cultivation site.
What remains allegation—and why precision matters
The operations matter because they point to several supply routes at once—seaports, interstate highways, urban storage sites, logistics companies and forest cultivation. They also show why enforcement claims require a complete chain of custody, laboratory confirmation and prompt court filings if seizures are to become admissible evidence rather than press-release statistics.
For now, the confirmed public record is that NDLEA issued the statement and supporting photographs on September 20 and that multiple arrests and recoveries were reported. The alleged offences, ownership of each consignment and guilt of any suspect remain matters for investigation and the courts.
