NDLEA arrests Chinese woman with drug shipment at Lagos airport

Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has apprehended a 63-year-old Chinese woman, Ting Hung Kiong, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos for attempting to smuggle a significant quantity of illicit drugs into the country. The suspect, who is a naturalized Malaysian citizen, was intercepted upon arrival from Thailand via Dubai on an Emirates Airline flight.

NDLEA operatives discovered two large travel boxes containing 31.0 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, within her luggage. During questioning, Kiong stated that her daughter sponsored her journey from Malaysia to Thailand and then to Nigeria. She admitted to spending two weeks in Thailand before being handed the drug consignment at the airport for delivery in Nigeria.

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During an interview, the 63-year-old suspect who claims she works as a caregiver in Malaysia stated that her daughter sponsored her trip from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria. She further disclosed that she spent two weeks in Thailand, before she was handed the illicit consignment at the Thailand airport to deliver in Nigeria.

In parallel operations, the NDLEA reported intercepting another substantial drug shipment at the Lagos airport import shed. Following close monitoring of a consignment that arrived from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight, operatives seized 1,825,710 tablets of Tapentadol 250mg. The estimated value of this seizure is N2,190,852,000.

Further interdictions occurred at other airports. At the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, a suspect named Onyeka Valentine Emeka was arrested while disembarking from an Ethiopian Airlines flight. He was found to have excreted 185.36 grams of cocaine. Additionally, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, a 29-year-old building engineer, Babatunde Prosper Afekhide, was arrested while attempting to board a flight to Italy. His luggage contained 10,280 pills of various opioids, including Tramaking 225mg, Tramadol 200mg, and Tapentadol 250mg, concealed to evade detection. The agency also intercepted 1,174 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) concealed in a bicycle luggage carrier destined for the Netherlands via a courier company in Lagos.

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Following close monitoring of the consignment by NDLEA operatives since its arrival from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight, the 29 large cartons containing One Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ten (1,825,710) tablets of Tapentadol 250mg, worth Two Billion, One Hundred and Ninety Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty-Two Thousand Naira (N2,190,852,000) were eventually handed over to the NDLEA by the Customs Service on Friday 22nd May 2026.