The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, identified as Will Ann, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into Nigeria while travelling with her three-year-old son.
The agency disclosed that the suspect was apprehended on Monday, July 6, 2026, during the inward clearance of passengers aboard Qatar Airways Flight QR1433 from Doha.
According to the NDLEA, the suspect allegedly concealed 14 large blocks of heroin inside two suitcases and initially denied travelling with any checked luggage.
In a statement issued on Sunday by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, operatives said they matched the baggage tags on the suitcases with the claim tags attached to the suspect’s passport, forcing her to admit ownership of the luggage.
“Though she initially denied travelling with check-in bags, after operatives were able to quickly establish that the two bags containing the drugs had tags which tallied with the claim tags attached to her passport, she recanted and admitted ownership of the bags, adding that she forgot she checked in the two bags,” the statement read.
The agency said the suspect claimed she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
Further intelligence, according to the NDLEA, revealed that she allegedly belongs to a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Cambodia–South Africa route alongside her husband and alleged accomplice, Jan Coenraad De Jager.
In another operation, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
A search of his backpack reportedly uncovered 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed inside clothing.
During interrogation, the suspect allegedly confessed that he had worked as an okada rider in Lagos for 15 years before being recruited into drug trafficking by an associate based in Uganda.
“He said he ingested the recovered pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on his planned journey to Madagascar to deliver the drug consignment,” the agency stated.
Th NDLEA said Chinadu was denied entry into Madagascar, after which his sponsor allegedly redirected him to Lagos, where he was arrested.
Because he could not accurately state the number of drug pellets he had swallowed, the suspect was placed under observation.
Between his arrest and July 11, he excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total recovery to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms.
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At the Apapa Seaport in Lagos, the agency also intercepted 8,287 bags of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, weighing 4,143.5 kilograms and estimated to have a street value exceeding N10.3 billion.
The seizure followed a joint examination conducted by NDLEA operatives, the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies after weeks of surveillance on the container imported from Montreal, Canada.
“The discovery followed weeks of targeted tracking and monitoring of the shipment since its departure from Montreal, Canada, by operatives of the Maritime Intelligence Unit of NDLEA in close collaboration with the Apapa Strategic Command of the Agency,” the statement added.
The anti-narcotics agency also disclosed that its operatives foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk concealed inside a gas compressor destined for Cyprus through a Lagos-based courier company.
Beyond enforcement activities, the NDLEA said its commands across the country continued the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign with sensitisation programmes in secondary schools across Ebonyi, Kano, Ekiti and Ogun states, while officials of its Zone 14 Command paid an advocacy visit to Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Commending officers involved in the operations, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, retired Brigadier General Buba Marwa, praised the commands for combining aggressive drug supply reduction efforts with sustained public enlightenment.
Marwa urged officers nationwide not to relent in the agency’s campaign against illicit drug trafficking and substance abuse, charging them “not to rest on their past laurels” in the fight against narcotics.