Herbal Tea Merchant Arrested Over Cocaine Shipments to Saudi Arabia

….as NDLEA Busts Drug Network Across Nine States

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a convicted cocaine trafficker who allegedly reinvented himself as a herbal tea businessman while masterminding illicit drug shipments to Saudi Arabia.

The suspect, 34-year-old Dunu Bethel Ebubechukwu, was arrested in a sting operation at Article Market, opposite Trade Fair Market, in the Ojo area of Lagos, on Friday, September 4, 2026, following weeks of intelligence-led tracking by operatives of the Agency’s Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI).

His arrest followed the interception on July 31 of 1.2 kilogrammes of cocaine concealed inside phone chargers at a courier company in Lagos. The consignment was allegedly destined for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

According to the NDLEA, Ebubechukwu admitted during interrogation that he had masterminded previous illicit drug shipments and discarded his telephone SIM card after learning that the latest consignment had been intercepted.

Investigations also revealed that the suspect had previously been arrested by the Agency in 2011 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, after he ingested 900 grammes of cocaine and 130 grammes of heroin in an attempt to travel to Austria.

He was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to five years in jail. The NDLEA said he subsequently changed his name to Dunu Bethel Ebubechukwu and returned to the criminal trade.

A search of his residence at 6 Yemishola Street, Ejigbo, Lagos, on Friday also led to the recovery of phone chargers similar to those allegedly used to conceal the intercepted cocaine, with their internal components removed to create space for drugs.

The arrest formed part of a wider nationwide crackdown in which NDLEA operatives recovered huge quantities of cocaine, cannabis, tramadol, methamphetamine, codeine, rohypnol and other controlled substances across Lagos, Adamawa, Ondo, Kaduna, Bauchi, Ekiti, Kogi, Taraba and Enugu states.

At the Lagos airport, NDLEA officers recovered 966,200 tablets of Tramadol 225mg, valued at more than N1.1 billion, concealed among thrift trousers in a 21-carton consignment imported from Pakistan.

The operatives also seized 57.80kg of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, worth more than N173 million in street value. The drug was hidden inside cartons of disposable hand gloves in a shipment from Singapore that had remained unclaimed for weeks before a joint examination by NDLEA officers, Customs and other security agencies on Thursday, September 3.

In one of the week’s most brazen discoveries, NDLEA operatives intercepted a 20,000-litre fuel tanker marked MKA 960 XC along the Akoko/Lokoja Expressway in Ondo State on Friday after its driver allegedly refused to stop.

The driver later abandoned the vehicle at a church premises in Ugbe Akoko and fled into the bush.

A search of the tanker revealed a false compartment concealing 165 bags of cannabis weighing 2,145kg alongside its legitimate fuel cargo reportedly destined for Jos, Plateau State.

Barely a month after three suspects—Yashim Dauji, Larry Ifeanyi and Joseph Moji—were arrested at Tincan Port in Lagos over the seizure of 842.54kg of cannabis-laced cookies, another 598.08kg, comprising 890 packets of similarly infused cookies and gummies, was intercepted on Wednesday, September 2, in a 40-foot container at the port.

The latest consignment was linked to the suspects already in custody.

In Adamawa State, NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Damilu and Jambutu axis of Jimeta, Yola North Local Government Area, on Friday recovered 864,000 pills of opioids, especially tramadol, from a residence linked to a fleeing suspect, Patrick KC Frank.

The suspect’s Honda Civic reportedly rammed an NDLEA patrol vehicle before he escaped.

In another interdiction operation in Michika, a major methamphetamine supplier from Lagos to the Mubi and Michika axis, 35-year-old Calistus Ebubechukwu, was arrested on Friday with 2kg of methamphetamine.

At Namtari checkpoint in Mubi on Monday, August 31, operatives also intercepted Attahiru Hussaini with a massive consignment of tramadol and other opioids concealed in a soap-laden Ford Galaxy bus.

In Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Friday recovered 2,386.9kg of cannabis, 350 grammes of cocaine, more than 100kg of assorted tramadol grades, 9.7 litres of codeine syrup and 4kg of rohypnol at Gbaji, while two suspects, Damilare Francis and Emeh Emmanuel, were arrested at Agbara with 720kg of cannabis.

In Kogi State, three suspects—Saidu Mustapha, 35; Zaharadeen Salisu, 29; and AbdulSalam Abdullahi, 25—were arrested with 636kg of cannabis concealed in chicken manure aboard a bus travelling from Owo, Ondo State, to Jos, Plateau State, along the Okene/Lokoja highway.

In Taraba State, 58-year-old Kelechi Unachukwu was arrested along Zaki-Biam Road in Wukari Local Government Area with more than 109kg of assorted pharmaceutical drugs, including tramadol, diazepam, pentazocine, phenobarbital, Exol-5, nitrazepam, bromazepam and pregabalin.

The drugs were reportedly being conveyed in his Toyota Corolla, marked KUJ-333BT, from Onitsha, Anambra State, to Yola, Adamawa State.

In Kaduna, NDLEA operatives intercepted a truck loaded with bags of cement along the Zaria-Kano Expressway and recovered 1,179kg of skunk.

In a follow-up operation in Bauchi, 25-year-old Hamza Dahiru was arrested following the seizure of 322.5kg of cannabis at Deba town, Gombe State, on Tuesday, September 1.

In Ekiti State, two suspects, Chuks Alex, 50, and Asafa Adekunle, 35, were arrested after NDLEA operatives uncovered and destroyed a four-hectare cannabis farm in Efon-Alaaye forest, recovering 117kg of already-harvested skunk.

Similarly, in Enugu State, 20-year-old Obinna David was arrested at Ugbema Junction on Saturday, September 5, with 40,590 capsules of tramadol.

While the enforcement operations continued, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country also sustained their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities, taking drug prevention messages to schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities.

Among the activities were WADA enlightenment lectures for nursing mothers and nurses at Ibereko Primary Health Centre, Abeokuta North, Ogun State; youths of Umouji/Okwo community at Olokoro, Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State; and NLNG staff and concessionaires at the Saipem-Daewoo, NLNG terminal in Bonny, Rivers State.

Commenting on the operations, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended the officers and men of DOGI, MMIA, Ondo, Tincan, Lagos, Adamawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Ekiti, Kogi, Taraba and Enugu Commands for their professionalism and intelligence-driven approach.

Marwa urged them and their colleagues across the country to sustain the Agency’s balanced approach to drug control, combining enforcement with prevention and public sensitisation.

He reiterated that traffickers who believe they can reinvent themselves under new identities or legitimate business fronts will continue to be tracked down.

The latest operations therefore highlight the increasingly sophisticated methods being employed by drug trafficking networks, with illicit substances being concealed in phone chargers, clothing, hand-glove cartons, shipping containers, chicken manure, cement trucks and fuel tankers.

For the NDLEA, however, the arrest of Ebubechukwu represents a significant intelligence victory: a man previously convicted for cocaine and heroin trafficking allegedly changed his identity, adopted a legitimate business front and returned to the drug trade, only to find himself back in the hands of the law.