NDLEA busts cocaine smuggling plot concealed in stockfish
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) reported its agents discovered a huge shipment of cocaine concealed in the heads of imported dry stock fish.
The illegal narcotic was recovered from a syndicate that distributed the cargo to other regions of the world, particularly India.
According to the NDLEA, the narcotics syndicate was dismantled in response to intelligence on their transnational criminal activities.
This was made known in a statement on Sunday by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja.
The statement disclosed that the substance was intercepted during a well-coordinated sting operation by operatives of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Strategic Command of the Agency at the Ojo area of Lagos on Thursday 19th March 2026.
According to the statement, in the course of the operation, three jumbo size bags were found in possession of the kingpin, identified as 36-year-old Akputa Dickson Ejike.
A search of the bags led to the recovery of 237 wraps of cocaine buried in the heads of imported dry stock fish locally known as ‘Okporoko’.
The cocaine pellets have a gross weight of 5.80 kilograms. The consignment was intended for export to Delhi, India.
In another operation in Lagos, NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, on Wednesday 25th March intercepted two illicit consignments heading to the United Kingdom at a courier company.
In one of the shipments that originated from Cotonou, Benin Republic, 1.9 kilograms of methamphetamine were found concealed in automobile filters while the second parcel contains 40 ampoules of morphine sulphate and nine ampoules of fentanyl.
