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Agents of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have disrupted an attempt by a Thai national, Ms Pattaphi Wimonnat, to smuggle 43 packages of Canadian Loud, a synthetic cannabis variant, into Nigeria via the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos.
The 24-year-old suspect was caught after authorities discovered the illegal shipment, weighing 46.60 kilograms, hidden in her luggage.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi stated on Sunday that Wimonnat, who admitted to being a hired drug courier, was arrested on Thursday, February 20, 2025, during the customs check of passengers arriving on a Qatar Airways flight from Thailand through Doha, Qatar.
She revealed that the drug syndicate that contracted her had promised to pay her $3,000 upon the successful delivery of the shipment in Nigeria.
In another operation, NDLEA operatives intercepted 68 parcels of Ghanaian Loud, weighing 42.2 kilograms, concealed within the walls of wooden crates intended for export to London.
This seizure occurred at the airport's export shed on Friday, February 21. Initially, three suspects, including a freight agent and two dispatch riders, were detained. Later, the alleged mastermind, Samuel Bitris, was located and arrested at his home in Exodus Estate, Ajah, Lagos.
In the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Onne, Rivers State, NDLEA officers, in partnership with the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies, discovered 49 cartons containing 49,000 pills of tamol, a tramadol brand (225mg).
The consignment was located in a 40ft container during a joint examination on Thursday, February 20.
In Nasarawa State, two individuals, Bello Adamu, 40, and Pius Azuka, 42, were apprehended on Saturday, February 22, in Kokona/Keffi with 517 kilograms of skunk. Likewise, in Niger State, two men, Usman Ruwa, 43, and Yunusa Haruna, 45, were arrested on Thursday, February 20, while transporting 62.7 kilograms of skunk in a Toyota Corolla along the Sabon Asibiti Road in Kontagora.
