A 49-year-old alleged cross-border kingpin was arrested after 47,200 Captagon pills were found hidden inside Ghanaian bathing soap at Lagos airport

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has made a major ₦6.2bn drug seizure at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, arresting 49-year-old alleged cross-border drug kingpin Akinbile Kazeem Aikins and uncovering 47,200 Captagon pills hidden inside blocks of locally made bathing soap.

Also read: NDLEA uncovers cocaine, heroin hidden in iron boxes in Port Harcourt

The discovery was made on Saturday, August 22, 2026, after Aikins arrived at the Lagos airport from Accra, Ghana, aboard an Africa World Airlines flight.

According to the NDLEA, a search of his carton of bathing soap, popularly known as “Ghana Soap”, revealed the illicit amphetamine concealed within the blocks. The consignment was valued at more than ₦1.5bn. (Channels Television)

The arrest has added an unusual human detail to an increasingly sophisticated pattern of drug concealment, with traffickers turning ordinary household products into vehicles for dangerous substances.

The NDLEA said Aikins told investigators that he was expected to deliver the Captagon consignment somewhere in northern Nigeria.

The agency has not publicly identified the intended recipient or disclosed whether further arrests have been made in connection with the shipment. (Premium Times Nigeria)

Captagon, an amphetamine-based stimulant, has acquired the controversial nickname “Jihadi drug” because of its reported association with extremist networks and conflict economies in parts of the Middle East.

The description, however, should not be taken to mean that every Captagon shipment is necessarily connected to terrorism.

The substance is not new to Nigerian drug enforcement operations. The NDLEA first publicly reported a major Captagon interception in Nigeria in September 2021, when 451,807 tablets weighing 74.119 kilogrammes were found concealed inside imported marble-polishing machines at Apapa Port in Lagos. (Channels Television)

That earlier seizure was traced to a shipment originating from the Middle East. Investigators said the container had passed through several countries before reaching Nigeria, illustrating the international routes that can complicate efforts to track illicit pharmaceutical and stimulant consignments. (The Guardian Nigeria)

The latest airport operation also produced a far larger haul of pharmaceutical opioids.

NDLEA operatives recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg from four abandoned consignments at the MMIA import shed.

The combined gross weight was 2,787.40 kilogrammes, while the estimated street value exceeded ₦4.6bn. (Channels Television)

Three of the consignments contained 900,000 Tramaking tablets weighing 815.40 kilogrammes. The shipments arrived from Bangladesh aboard RwandAir flights.

The fourth contained 3,000,030 Tapentadol tablets weighing 1,972 kilogrammes and arrived from Amsterdam on a Qatar Airways flight.

The consignments had been placed under surveillance after no one came forward to claim them.

They were formally retrieved on Friday, August 28, following a joint examination involving NDLEA personnel, the Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders. (Radio Nigeria Lagos)

The Lagos operations formed part of a broader series of interdictions recorded by the agency across the country during the week.

In Lagos, 31-year-old United States returnee Sowunmi David Oludotun was arrested on August 19 at Ikate, Lekki, after allegedly showing up to take delivery of 3.350 kilogrammes of Loud, a potent synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United Kingdom. (National Drug Law Enforcement Agency)

In Rivers State, NDLEA operatives raided the Abuja Down/Up area of Port Harcourt and recovered a fireproof iron safe suspected to have been used to store illicit drugs.

The safe had to be opened with a welding machine on Tuesday, August 25. Inside, officers found 237 grammes of Colorado cannabis, 316 grammes of cocaine and 10 grammes of heroin. (National Drug Law Enforcement Agency)

Ondo State also recorded significant seizures. Three suspects, Oyedele Daniel, 42, Taye Saliu, 36, and Kehinde Saliu, 36, were arrested along the Ipele-Idoani Road on Friday, August 28, with 728 kilogrammes of skunk allegedly recovered from their truck, marked KRE 120 XB.

Two other suspects, Uche Joseph, 35, and Godwin Umeh, 21, were arrested at Aponmu Forest on August 26 with another 341 kilogrammes of skunk, bringing the reported cannabis recovery from the two operations to more than one tonne. (National Drug Law Enforcement Agency)

In Delta State, more than 176,000 tablets of assorted opioids, including tramadol and Molly, were recovered in two separate interdiction operations between August 26 and August 28. (National Drug Law Enforcement Agency)

Taken together, the operations show the breadth of the challenge confronting Nigerian drug enforcement authorities, from international airport consignments and cross-border trafficking to local distribution networks and forest-based cannabis operations.

The seizures also point to the increasingly varied methods allegedly being used to move narcotics.

In Lagos, Captagon was hidden in bathing soap, while other consignments entered the country through conventional air-cargo channels and were subsequently abandoned when their intended handlers failed to collect them.

NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended the officers involved in the Lagos, Ondo and Delta operations and urged personnel to maintain what he described as the agency’s balanced approach to drug control.

“Drug traffickers are desperate to explore every means, including concealment in everyday household items like soap, to move their illicit consignments,” Marwa said.

He directed officers to sustain the pressure on trafficking networks, warning that those involved in the trade were becoming increasingly desperate and were continually looking for new ways to evade detection.

For the NDLEA, the latest seizures represent more than the removal of drugs from circulation.

They offer a glimpse into an illicit supply chain that crosses borders, exploits legitimate trade routes and adapts quickly when familiar methods become too risky.

The challenge now will be to establish who commissioned the shipments, who financed them and where the drugs were ultimately intended to go.