The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has reported the arrest of a 41-year-old Canadian woman, Adrienne Munju, at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos. She was apprehended for attempting to bring a large quantity of ‘Canadian Loud,’ a potent form of synthetic cannabis, into Nigeria.
The NDLEA revealed that Munju was arrested on Thursday, October 3, 2024, during the inspection of passengers arriving on a KLM flight from Canada at Terminal 1 of the Lagos airport. Femi Babafemi, the Director of Media and Advocacy at NDLEA’s Abuja Headquarters, made the announcement in a statement on Sunday.
According to Babafemi, this was Munju’s first trip to Nigeria, and she was found carrying 74 parcels of the illicit drug, weighing a total of 35.20 kilograms. The drugs were hidden in two of her three bags during a joint inspection. Munju reportedly confessed that she was recruited to smuggle the drugs through an online platform, with a promise of receiving 10,000 Canadian dollars upon successful delivery in Lagos. She further explained that she accepted the offer to help cover expenses for her master’s degree program in Canada.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, intercepted a shipment of 13,298,000 opioid pills, including various brands such as Tramadol, Tamol-X, and Royal Tapentadol. Along with the pills, 338,253 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup were seized, all with a combined street value exceeding N9 billion. The drugs were discovered in three containers from India during a joint inspection with Nigerian Customs and other port authorities on October 2 and 3, 2024.
Similarly, on October 3, NDLEA officers at the Tincan seaport in Lagos intercepted 100 parcels of Canadian Loud, weighing 50 kilograms. The illegal shipment was hidden in five large bags inside a container along with four imported vehicles from Canada. Although the container had been cleared from the ESS Libra Bonded Terminal in Ikorodu, NDLEA operatives, acting on reliable intelligence, tracked it to a warehouse where the drugs were found concealed in one of the vehicles, a Toyota Sienna van. A suspect, Abubakar Shuaibu Ibrahim, was arrested in connection with the case.
In another operation in Taraba State, NDLEA agents stopped a commercial bus on October 3 that was en route from Onitsha, Anambra State, to Jalingo. Inside the bus, large amounts of opioids, including tramadol, rohypnol, and codeine-based syrups, were found hidden in secret compartments. Two individuals, Pako Thomas and Emmanuel Anyigor, were taken into custody. Additionally, a man named Chibuzor Okafor was arrested in Wukari on October 2 for attempting to transport 80 blocks of cannabis, weighing 38 kilograms, concealed in bags of garri.
In Lagos, a suspect, Bolanle Ajenifuja, was arrested on October 4 in the Afo-Media area of Ojo with 700 liters of “skuchies,” a mix of local beverages and illicit drugs. On the same day, NDLEA operatives arrested three more suspects—Ezekiel Akpele, Elijah Michael, and Goddard John—during a raid on two cannabis farms located near the border between Edo and Ondo states. Over three hectares of farmland containing 9,966.332 kilograms of cannabis were destroyed, and 48 kilograms of processed psychoactive substances were recovered.
The NDLEA Chairman and CEO, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised the efforts of the agency’s officers in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Edo, and Taraba for their work in these significant drug seizures and arrests.
