Marwa Vows To Dismantle Cartels Using New Identities And Legitimate Business Fronts
By Felix Mbata, Lagos state
It was a week of heavy blows for drug cartels across Nigeria as operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, stormed through nine states in intelligence-led operations that exposed new tricks, shattered old networks, and recovered staggering quantities of illicit drugs.
At the center of it all was a 34-year-old man who thought he could hide behind herbal tea. Identified as Dunu Bethel Ebubechukwu, he was arrested on Friday 4th September 2026 at Article Market, opposite Trade Fair Market in Ojo, Lagos. To his neighbors he was a herbal tea businessman. To NDLEA’s Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, he was the mastermind behind a 1.2kg cocaine consignment concealed in phone chargers and intercepted on 31st July while heading to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
When operatives closed in, Ebubechukwu admitted he had masterminded previous shipments and had discarded his SIM card once he learnt the Saudi consignment was caught. A search of his home at 6 Yemishola Street, Ejigbo, Lagos on the same day produced more phone chargers with their internal parts removed, the same method used to hide drugs for export.
But this was not Ebubechukwu’s first dance with the law. NDLEA records showed he was first arrested in 2011 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja after ingesting 900grams of cocaine and 130grams of heroin in an attempt to board a flight to Austria under the name Dunu Chukwuyenre Enoch. He was convicted and jailed for five years. On regaining freedom, he changed his name and returned to the trade, believing a new identity would keep him safe.
While Lagos was closing in on the “herbal tea” baron, other NDLEA formations were recording massive seizures. At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, a joint examination with Customs on Thursday 3rd September uncovered 966,200 tablets of Tramadol 225mg worth over N1.1 billion hidden inside thrift trousers in a 21-carton consignment that arrived from Pakistan. In the same operation, 57.80kg of Loud, a high-grade synthetic strain of cannabis with a street value of over N173 million, was found tucked inside cartons of disposable hand gloves in a shipment from Singapore that had been abandoned for weeks.
The most cinematic bust of the week happened on the Akoko/Lokoja expressway in Ondo state. On Friday 4th September, NDLEA operatives gave chase to a 20,000-litre fuel tanker marked MKA 960 XC after the driver refused to stop. The driver eventually abandoned the vehicle at a church premises in Ugbe Akoko and vanished into the bush. When officers forced open the tanker, they found a cleverly constructed false compartment concealing 165 bags of cannabis weighing 2,145kg, riding alongside its legitimate fuel cargo that was headed for Jos in Plateau state.
The ports were not spared. At Tincan Port in Lagos, barely a month after three suspects were arrested over 842.54kg of cannabis-laced cookies, another 598.08kg made up of 890 packets of similarly infused cookies and gummies were intercepted on Wednesday 2nd September in a 40-foot container. Investigations linked the new seizure to the suspects already in custody.
Up north in Adamawa, the story was about opioids and meth. On Friday 4th September, operatives on patrol in Jimeta, Yola North recovered 864,000 pills of tramadol and other opioids from a residence linked to a fleeing suspect, Patrick KC Frank, whose Honda Civic had rammed an NDLEA vehicle before he escaped. Days earlier, on Monday 31st August, another suspect, Attahiru Hussaini, was intercepted at Namtari checkpoint in Mubi with 750,027,530 pills of tramadol and other opioids concealed inside a soap-laden Ford Galaxy bus. Still in Adamawa, 35-year-old Calistus Ebubechukwu was arrested in Michika on Friday 4th September. NDLEA described him as a major supplier of methamphetamine moving the dangerous drug from Lagos to Mubi and Michika. He was caught with 2kg of meth.
Lagos recorded more pain for traffickers. On Friday 4th September, operatives raided Gbaji and recovered 2,386.9kg of cannabis, 350grams of cocaine, over 100kg of assorted grades of tramadol, 9.7 litres of codeine syrup and 4kg of rohypnol. At Agbara, two men, Damilare Francis and Emeh Emmanuel, were arrested with 720kg of cannabis.
The highways also yielded big catches. In Kogi state, three men, Saidu Mustapha, Zaharadeen Salisu and AbdulSalam Abdullahi, were nabbed with 636kg of cannabis hidden inside chicken manure aboard a bus traveling from Owo in Ondo state to Jos. In Taraba, 58-year-old Kelechi Unachukwu was arrested along Zaki-Biam road in Wukari with a cocktail of over 109kg of tramadol, diazepam, pentazocine, phenobarbital, exol-5, nitrazepam, bromazepam and pregabalin being conveyed from Onitsha to Yola in his Toyota Corolla.
Kaduna and Bauchi added to the tally. Along the Zaria-Kano expressway, a truck loaded with bags of cement was intercepted and 1,179kg of skunk was recovered. In Bauchi, Hamza Dahiru, 25, was picked up in a follow-up operation after 322.5kg of cannabis was seized in Deba, Gombe state on Tuesday 1st September.
Down south, NDLEA destroyed a 4-hectare cannabis farm in Efon-Alaaye forest, Ekiti state and arrested Chuks Alex, 50, and Asafa Adekunle, 35, with 117kg of already-harvested skunk. In Enugu, 20-year-old Obinna David was arrested at Ugbema Junction on Saturday 5th September with 40,590 capsules of tramadol.
Even as the enforcement dragnet tightened, the Agency’s War Against Drug Abuse campaign continued. In the past week, lectures and sensitization reached nursing mothers at Ibereko Primary Health Centre in Abeokuta North, youths in Umouji/Okwo community in Abia, and staff of NLNG and concessionaires at Saipem-Daewoo in Bonny, Rivers state.
Conclusively, reacting to the nationwide sweep, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) commended officers of DOGI, MMIA, Ondo, Tincan, Lagos, Adamawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Ekiti, Kogi, Taraba and Enugu Commands for what he called a professional and intelligence-driven outing.He warned that the Agency would not be deceived by new business fronts or name changes.
“Traffickers who believe they can reinvent themselves under new identities or legitimate businesses will continue to be tracked down. Our focus now is to follow the money, seize the assets, and dismantle the economic base of these criminal enterprises,” Marwa said.With over 2 million pills of opioids, tons of cannabis and meth, and a convicted baron back in custody, NDLEA says the message is clear: the war has moved from the streets to the boardrooms and bank accounts of the drug trade.
Signed:
Femi Babafemi
Director, Media & Advocacy
NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja