Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have apprehended a leader of a drug syndicate, Shodunke Yetunde Simbiat, twenty months after the cartel led by a couple Bolanle Lookman Dauda and Olayinka Toheebat Dauda, was smashed by the anti-narcotic agency in Lagos and Ogun States.
A multi-billion-naira worth of illicit drug were recovered from the couple before the arrest of Shodunke who had gone underground since May 2024.
NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed on Sunday, that the suspect was nabbed in her Lagos home where additional 23.50 kilograms of the class A drug were recovered from her children’s room.
Babafemi recalled that the kingpin, Lookman and his wife, Toheebat were arrested on Saturday May 25, 2024 by operatives of a special operations unit of NDLEA at Ibiye, along Lagos-Badagry expressway while attempting to cross the land border to deliver the consignment in Ghana.
At the point of their arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5 kilograms were found on them. A swift follow up operation in their residence at Plot 24/25 OPIC extension, Petedo road, Agbara, Ogun State, led to the recovery of additional eight blocks of the same drug weighing 10kg, bringing the total weight of the consignment seized from the couple to 57.5 kilograms.
“Determined to rein in every member of the syndicate, the NDLEA operatives continued with follow up intelligence and surveillance on the trans-border drug trafficking organisation until a 39-year-old female stash keeper, Shodunke Yetunde Simbiat, was identified as a key member of the DTO. As a result, she was trailed to her 31 Onasanya street, Surulere, Lagos residence on Tuesday 9th December 2025.
“A thorough search of her home led to the discovery of blocks of cocaine weighing 23.50 kilograms concealed in a black suit case recovered from her children’s room. She admitted ownership of the drug consignment worth over N5billion in street value,” Babafemi explained.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives attached to Terminal II Departure Hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos on Thursday December 18, 2025, arrested a 36-year-old businessman, Nwanwene Robinson Destiny, with a total of 1,020 pills of tramadol 225mg and tapentadol 200mg concealed in his luggage while attempting to board a Royal Air-Maroc flight to Milan, Italy where he’s based.
According to the NDLEA’s spokesperson, the suspect claimed that the successful trafficking of the opioids to Italy would have fetched him €200.00 from the person to which he was to deliver them.
In another instance, at the Seme border in Badagry area of Lagos, a 48-year-old Beninoise Leocardi Josu was on Thursday December 18, arrested by NDLEA officers while attempting to cross into Nigeria with 3,400 tablets of tramadol 225mg, even as a suspect Abdullahi Adamu, 30, was nabbed along Okene/Lokoja Highway with 28.400kg skunk, a strain of cannabis and Colorado, a synthetic cannabis on Friday December 19.
In Oyo state, NDLEA operatives on Friday December 19, recovered 125,000 capsules of tramadol and 1,800 ampoules of pentazocine injection in a Toyota Hiace bus marked XD 592 AWL along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, while two suspects, Ogunlade Kazeem, 54, and Adeleke Ismail, 30, were arrested with 185.4 kilograms of skunk at Challenge Motor Park, Ibadan, on Wednesday December 17, 2025.
Also, a total of 405kg skunk was seized when NDLEA operatives raided Owena/Ijesha Forest in Osun State where a 45-year-old suspect, Charles James, was nabbed on Friday December 19, while another suspect Jamilu Zakari, 42, was arrested with 14,960 pills of tramadol 225mg at the toll gate, along the Abuja – Kaduna Highway same day.
Similarly, the NDLEA seized a consignment of opioids concealed in two kolanut sacks (huhun goro) coming from Abuja to Gusau, Zamfara State.
