RCMP and NDLEA Collaboration Behind the Landmark Drug Seizure
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA has formally taken custody of 6,778.5 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, following its interception at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos in one of the year’s most significant maritime drug busts.
The illicit consignment was officially handed over to the NDLEA during a ceremony at the Apapa Port on Wednesday, the culmination of a joint examination of two containers carried out by operatives of the NDLEA, the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies. A statement issued the same day by the agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, detailed the scale of the operation and the international cooperation behind it.
Speaking through the agency’s Director of Seaport Operations, ACGN Ibinabo Archie-Abia, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd), described the seizure as a landmark achievement built on inter-agency collaboration. “Through two major seizures recorded on June 15 and June 24, 2026, we send a clear and unequivocal message that we are more determined than ever to dismantle organised criminal syndicates and drug trafficking networks operating within and beyond our borders,” Marwa said.
He revealed that the seizures were the product of months of intelligence-led operations coordinated by the NDLEA’s Special Investigation Unit and Marine Intelligence Unit, working in collaboration with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Nigeria Customs Service — a partnership that underscores how deeply transnational the trafficking networks targeting Nigeria’s ports have become.
According to Marwa, the international syndicates behind the shipment relied on deliberately complex maritime routing in an attempt to shake off detection, moving the consignments across multiple continents before they were ultimately intercepted in Nigeria. Sustained surveillance by the collaborating agencies, however, allowed investigators to track both containers step by step, from their point of origin in Canada through to their eventual arrival on Nigerian soil.
The first container, identified as CAAU 7569127, departed Toronto on 16 April 2026. In what investigators believe was a deliberate attempt to evade detection, it was moved by rail to Montreal before being loaded onto the vessel Ghallow Express. The container arrived at Tangier Med in Morocco on 6 May 2026, where it was trans-shipped onto the Spartel Trader, which berthed at Tin Can Island Port on 27 May 2026. “It was subsequently moved to the Global Bonded Terminal before being transferred by water to Apapa Port on 10th June 2026, where it was intercepted during a joint examination of the shipment between our men, our colleagues from the Customs Service and other security agencies,” Marwa said.
The second container, identified as HAMU 3246311, followed a similarly circuitous route. It left Montreal on 1 May aboard the vessel Africa Express before being trans-shipped onto the Algeciras Express on 15 May. Marwa explained that it arrived at Tin Can Island Port and, following discharge on 4 June 2026, was moved to Apapa Port on 22 June 2026, “where it fell into the hands of our waiting officers.”
Beyond the physical seizure of the drugs, Marwa was emphatic that the agency’s work would extend into dismantling the financial infrastructure that sustains such trafficking operations in the first place. “We recognise that the staggering profits generated by illicit drug trafficking continue to fuel crimes against humanity and against our nation, despite the devastating toll they take on individuals, families and communities,” he said. “As such, we remain resolute. Our work does not end with seizure. We are committed to identifying, arresting and prosecuting those responsible, to confiscating their criminal assets, and to ensuring that they derive no benefit whatsoever from their illegal enterprise.”
Marwa closed his remarks by commending the officers involved across all participating agencies, framing the successful interception as proof of what coordinated, intelligence-driven policing can achieve against sophisticated international crime networks. “I commend, in the strongest terms, the dedication, professionalism and courage of the officers and men of the NDLEA, the Nigeria Customs Service and all sister security agencies who refused to look away and allow these dangerous substances to flood our communities. Your patriotism and unwavering commitment have once again proven that you are effective guardians of our maritime gateways,” he said.
He added that the operation’s success reflected the strength of intelligence-sharing and operational synergy among every participating agency. “This success was made possible by the intelligence-sharing and operational synergy displayed by every participating agency. It is a powerful demonstration of what inter-agency collaboration, international cooperation and intelligence-driven operations can achieve in the fight against transnational organised crime and illicit drug trafficking,” Marwa said, positioning the Apapa seizure as a template for how future operations against similarly complex smuggling networks might be conducted.
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