Nigerians Abroad Shipping Drugs Home – NDLEA Sounds Alarm

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has issued a strong public warning to Nigerians against accepting consolidated cargoes or parcels from relatives and friends living abroad without full knowledge of their contents, citing a rising trend of illicit drug contamination involving potent cannabis strains known as Colorado and Loud.

In a post on X on Sunday, NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, raised a “RED ALERT,” stating that some individuals in the diaspora are deliberately shipping consolidated consignments mixed with these substances and listing family members or friends in Nigeria as consignees or recipients. Unsuspecting recipients, he warned, face arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment if the packages are found to contain banned drugs during routine or intelligence-led interdictions by NDLEA officers.

“The warning here is, if you’re not part of the syndicate, don’t accept to receive consignments on behalf of your ‘abroad’ brother or sister or friend particularly if you don’t know the full content of the consignment,” Babafemi wrote. “Many are already behind bars for this and the number keeps increasing with daily operations by @ndlea_nigeria officers. Please heed this warning and save yourself of the jail experience.”

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The alert was accompanied by video footage of operatives unpacking large black plastic-wrapped packages, revealing clear plastic bags filled with yellowish, lumpy substances consistent with seized cannabis products.

This latest caution comes amid sustained NDLEA operations targeting international trafficking routes into Nigeria. Colorado (also called Colos) is a highly potent synthetic or hybrid strain of cannabis that has increasingly been produced locally in clandestine laboratories, while Loud typically refers to strong imported varieties, often Canadian, Ghanaian, Thai, or Scottish strains. Both have featured prominently in major seizures at airports, seaports, and inland locations.

In recent months, NDLEA has intercepted significant consignments of these substances concealed in everyday items and commercial shipments. Examples include Colorado hidden in moimoi cooking sachets, Canadian Loud packed in tins of “Bean Salad Mix” or other food products inside vehicles shipped from Canada, Loud concealed in cartons of bathtubs or disposable hand gloves, and other packages arriving via courier or sea containers declared as household goods, auto parts, or personal effects. Local production of Colorado has also been disrupted, with raids uncovering laboratories equipped with precursor chemicals in residential areas of Lagos and elsewhere.

The agency has repeatedly stressed that traffickers exploit diaspora networks and the trust between family members to move drugs, turning ordinary recipients into unwitting facilitators. Recipients who collect or take delivery of such packages risk being treated as part of the trafficking chain under Nigerian law, regardless of claimed ignorance.

Broader NDLEA operations continue to yield large hauls of cannabis strains alongside other narcotics such as cocaine, heroin, tramadol, methamphetamine, and synthetic opioids at ports, airports, and through inland raids. The agency has emphasised intelligence-led interdictions, collaboration with Customs and international partners, and public sensitisation under its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) programme.

Nigerians are urged to exercise extreme caution with any unsolicited or opaque shipments from abroad. Those approached to act as consignees should demand full disclosure of contents and, where doubt exists, decline involvement or report suspicions to NDLEA through official channels. The agency maintains that the volume of such cases is rising, and continued vigilance is essential to avoid personal legal jeopardy and to disrupt the supply of these substances into the country.