NDLEA seizes Canadian drug shipment worth ₦10.4 billion at Lagos port

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has seized a shipment of Canadian Loud—a high‑potency cannabis strain—totaling 4,173.5 kilograms and valued at ₦10,433,750,000 at Lagos’s Tincan Island Port.

The seizure resulted from extensive intelligence work, continuous surveillance, and tracking of the container, which had been trans‑loaded multiple times after departing Toronto, Canada, on 28 March.

This information was released in a statement issued by NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi on Wednesday.

Babafemi noted that the container carrying the illicit product was moved by rail and reached the Lagos port on Saturday, 9 May.

“Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted a large consignment of Canadian Loud, a high‑potency strain of cannabis, weighing 4,173.5 kilogrammes, with a street value of Ten Billion Four Hundred and Thirty‑Three Million Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N10, 433, 750,000.00) only at the Tincan Island Port in Lagos.”

“The successful interdiction of the illicit drug consignment followed painstaking intelligence gathering, sustained surveillance, and trailing of the container, which was transloaded a number of times since it left Toronto, Canada, on 28th March, conveyed through rails to Montreal, where it was loaded on board a vessel, Jakarta Express voyage, which arrived Tanger Med Port in Morocco on 15th April, discharged and reloaded on another vessel, Osaka voyage, which eventually arrived the Lagos port on Saturday, 9 May 2026.

“The over two months of monitoring the shipment by the Marine Intelligence Unit of NDLEA and the Tincan Island Strategic Command of the agency, working in close collaboration with international partners, particularly the United Kingdom Home Office International Operations, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, culminated in the eventual seizure of the consignment on Tuesday, 12 May during a joint examination of the container by NDLEA operatives, men of the Customs Service and other security agencies.”

The agency explained that the cannabis was hidden inside two vehicles—a used Ford bus and a Mercedes‑Benz C300—both placed within the shipping container.

This operation follows a raid four days earlier on a Lekki mansion used as a stash house, where authorities recovered 4,000 parcels of the same substance, weighing 2,326 kilograms and valued at over ₦5.815 billion.

During the handover of the seized items by the Nigeria Customs Service at the Lagos port, NDLEA Director of Seaports Operations ACG Ibinabo Archie‑Abia said the operation highlighted the effectiveness of inter‑agency cooperation and intelligence‑led policing in tackling transnational organised crime.

Brigadier General Mohamed Marwa (rtd.), NDLEA chairman and chief executive officer, praised the officers of the Tincan Command and the Marine Intelligence Unit for their professionalism, noting that the recent seizures underscore a coordinated effort by international drug syndicates to flood Nigeria with synthetic cannabis strains.

“This second massive seizure in less than a week is a clear message to the international syndicates who think they can use our ports as entry points for their soul‑destroying trade, that the synergy between NDLEA and Customs Service as well as other security agencies and our international partners like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the UK‑HOIO and the US DEA is yielding fantastic results. We will not rest until every link in this supply chain is broken and those behind these shipments are brought to justice,” Marwa stated.