The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has intercepted consignments of captagon, popularly known as the “Jihadi drug,” alongside millions of opioid tablets valued at more than N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The NDLEA disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday by its Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
According to the agency, its operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday, August 22, 2026, arrested a 49-year-old alleged cross-border drug kingpin, Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, who arrived in Nigeria from Accra, Ghana, aboard an African World Airlines flight.
The statement partly read, “NDLEA intercepted consignments of captagon, widely known as ‘Jihadi drug’ and millions of opioid pills worth over N6.2 billion at the MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos.
The captagon shipment was seized at the Lagos airport on Saturday, August 22, 2026, following the arrest of a 49-year-old cross-border kingpin, Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, who arrived from Accra, Ghana aboard an African World Airlines flight.
“A search of his carton of local bathing soap, popularly called ‘Ghana Soap,” led to the recovery of 47,200 pills of the illicit amphetamine drug worth over N1.5 billion concealed within blocks of soap.
“Captagon, which is notoriously dubbed the ‘Jihadi drug’ for its use in funding extremist activities in conflict zones, was first intercepted in Nigeria by NDLEA in September 2021 at the Apapa port in Lagos. After his arrest, Akinbile claimed he was meant to deliver the consignment in the North.”
In a separate operation at the same airport, NDLEA operatives recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg. The drugs had a combined gross weight of 2,787.40kg and an estimated street value of over N4.6 billion.
The agency said the drugs were found in four abandoned consignments at the MMIA import shed after nobody came forward to claim them.
Three of the consignments contained 900,000 tablets of Tramaking weighing 815.40kg. The shipments reportedly arrived from Bangladesh aboard RwandAir flights.
The fourth consignment contained 3,000,030 tablets of Tapentadol, weighing 1,972kg, which arrived from Amsterdam on a Qatar Airways flight.
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