Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, have arrested a 30-year-old Brazilian woman, Ms Ingrid Rosa Benevides, for attempting to bring into Nigeria 30.09 kilogrammes of white heroin concealed in factory-sealed coffee packs, valued at over N3 billion.
The suspect, who works as a private security officer in Brazil, was arrested at the Abuja airport on January 23, 2026, upon her arrival on Qatar Airways flight QR1431, following processed intelligence. After her arrest, a search of her two checked-in bags led to the discovery of 21 factory-sealed packets of Brazilian coffee.
The NDLEA said that when the coffee packs were opened, instead of the beverage, officers found white substances which later tested positive for heroin, weighing a total of 30.09 kilogrammes. This represents the single largest heroin seizure recorded at the Abuja airport.
During her preliminary interview, the suspect claimed she brought the heroin consignment under the guise of coming to Nigeria on holiday.
Similarly, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, NDLEA operatives on January 20 intercepted two passengers, Adediran Adedoyin and Afatakpa Ochuko, who were travelling to Istanbul, Turkey, aboard a Turkish Airlines flight. A total of 3,990 pills of tapentadol 250 mg and tramaking 225 mg were found concealed in food items packed in their bags.
Meanwhile, operatives of the agency’s Marine Command in the early hours of Thursday, January 22, intercepted a wooden boat loaded with 44 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis weighing 1,848 kilogrammes, at Jakande Beach in Lekki, Lagos. The shipment had barely arrived from Ghana when NDLEA officers, acting on credible intelligence, stormed the location around 1:00 a.m. and recovered both the consignment and the boat.
Two suspects, Aminu Ali Baba, 20, and Abdulrasheed Abubakar, 28, were arrested on January 23 in connection with the seizure of two bags containing 140 packets of explosives heading to Kano and Kaduna. The bags were intercepted in a commercial bus along the Kaduna–Zaria Highway in Zaria, while Aminu Ali Baba was arrested at Karota Park in Kano and Abdulrasheed Abubakar was nabbed at Mando Park in Kaduna in swift follow-up operations.
An intelligence-led raid at Kwangila in Zaria Council, Kaduna, on January 22 led to the arrest of Fatima Ibrahim, 42, and Adejimoh Ismaila, 44, with 120 kilogrammes of skunk recovered from them.
NDLEA operatives in Borno State on January 21 intercepted 179,590 pills of tramadol and diazepam concealed in sacks of charcoal and animal feed in a public transport vehicle coming from Potiskum, Yobe State. A follow-up operation at Bulabulin, Maiduguri, led to the arrest of the owner, Rabiu Imam, 32.
A female suspect, Mrs Eze Cynthia Chioma, was arrested on January 23 in Mokwa, Niger State, in a follow-up operation by NDLEA operatives, following the seizure earlier the same day of her consignment of 78,500 pills of tramadol at Bode Saadu, Kwara State, in a truck coming from Lagos.
Her husband, who is currently remanded in prison and facing trial, was arrested last year for the same drug trafficking offence.
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