NDLEA intercepts ‘Jihadi drug’, N4.6bn opioids in Lagos

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency says it has intercepted captagon, known as the “Jihadi drug,” and millions of opioid tablets at Lagos airport in seizures valued at more than N6.2bn.

NDLEA operatives arrested 49-year-old Akinbile Kazeem Aikins on Aug. 22, 2026, after he arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport from Accra, Ghana, on an African World Airlines flight. A search of a carton of local bathing soap led officers to 47,200 captagon pills concealed inside blocks of soap. The agency valued the shipment at more than N1.5bn.

The NDLEA said Aikins claimed he was supposed to deliver the consignment in northern Nigeria. The agency describes captagon as a drug used to fund extremist activities in conflict zones and says it first intercepted the substance in Nigeria in 2021.

In a separate airport operation, officers recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg. The consignments weighed 2,787.40 kilograms and had an estimated street value of more than N4.6bn. Four abandoned consignments had arrived on RwandAir flights from Bangladesh and Qatar Airways from Amsterdam. Customs officials and other stakeholders joined the NDLEA in examining and retrieving the drugs on Aug. 28.

The agency also reported the arrest of a 31-year-old U.S. returnee in Lekki, Lagos, over an alleged attempt to collect 3.350 kilograms of Loud, a synthetic cannabis strain imported from the United Kingdom. In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, officers recovered assorted illicit drugs from a fireproof safe in the Abuja Down/Up area.

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NDLEA intercepted consignments of captagon, widely known as the ‘Jihadi drug’ and millions of opioid pills worth over N6.2bn at the MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos.