NDLEA Cracks Open N6.2bn ‘Jihadi Drug’ Haul Hidden in Soap

LAGOS

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has intercepted illicit drugs worth more than N6.2 billion at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, including nearly 3.9 million opioid tablets and a Captagon shipment, popularly nicknamed the “Jihadi drug,” smuggled inside blocks of ordinary bathing soap.

The suspect at the centre of the Captagon seizure, 49-year-old Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, has been arrested but not yet convicted of any offence; his case remains under investigation, and he is presumed innocent unless proven otherwise in a court of law.

How the soap gave up its secret

According to a statement by NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, operatives arrested Aikins on 22 August after he arrived in Lagos from Accra, Ghana, aboard an Africa World Airlines flight.

A search of his luggage, containing local bathing soap known as “Ghana Soap,” turned up 47,200 pills of Captagon concealed inside the soap blocks, valued at over N1.5 billion.

Findings by ValidViewNetwork show Captagon has acquired global notoriety for its reported ties to financing extremist groups in conflict zones, with Nigeria recording its first major interception of the drug back in September 2021, also at a Lagos port.

A second, larger haul left unclaimed

In a separate operation at the same airport, NDLEA operatives recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking and Tapentadol, two powerful opioids, from four consignments abandoned at the airport’s import shed after no one came forward to claim them.

ADVERTISEMENT

The find, weighing nearly 2.8 tonnes and valued at more than N4.6 billion, had arrived aboard flights from Bangladesh via Rwanda and from Amsterdam via Qatar; the NDLEA said the shipments had been under surveillance before being formally retrieved on 28 August in a joint operation with the Nigeria Customs Service.

A wider week of seizures

Checks by ValidViewNetwork show the airport busts were part of a broader sweep: a 31-year-old US returnee was separately arrested in Lekki after showing up to collect 3.35kg of a potent cannabis strain imported from the United Kingdom, while operatives in Rivers State cracked open a fireproof safe in a notorious Port Harcourt neighbourhood, recovering cocaine, heroin and other substances, and two more suspects were arrested in a nearby forest with over 340kg of similar drugs.

A pattern the agency says is accelerating

The NDLEA noted the latest hauls add to a running tally that, by its own account, has seen more than 15 million kilogrammes of illicit substances seized, over 80,000 arrests, and more than 15,000 convictions secured nationwide between January 2021 and May 2026.

Whether this latest seizure disrupts the broader trafficking network Aikins is alleged to have been part of, or simply removes one link in a much longer chain, is what investigators say the coming weeks of questioning should clarify.