Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a Nigeria-born businessman based in Brazil, Uche Franklin Onyekwere, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, for allegedly concealing cocaine on his body and inside his footwear.
The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, confirmed the arrest in a statement issued on Sunday. He said officers apprehended the 47-year-old suspect on Thursday, 29 January 2026, at the airport’s arrival hall during the clearance of passengers arriving on a South African Airways flight from Brazil via Johannesburg, following credible intelligence.
According to Babafemi, a body scan conducted on Onyekwere revealed the presence of illicit drugs, prompting officers to subject him to a strip search. The search uncovered a large parcel of a white powdery substance, later confirmed to be cocaine, wrapped around his right thigh.
Further checks revealed additional wraps of the drug concealed in the soles of a pair of flat shoes worn by the suspect. In total, NDLEA officers recovered three wraps of cocaine with a combined weight of 1.60 kilogrammes from his body and footwear.
During preliminary questioning, Onyekwere reportedly admitted purchasing the drugs in Brazil with the intention of reselling them in Nigeria to raise capital for his business and finance the naming ceremony of his newborn child. He claimed to have lived in São Paulo since 2008 and to have operated a toy business for about nine years.
In a related operation, NDLEA officers at the Tincan Seaport in Lagos intercepted 55 jumbo bags of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, weighing 1,183 kilogrammes. The agency discovered the drugs on 28 January during a joint examination of a container imported from Montreal, Canada, alongside Customs and other security agencies. The illicit consignment was hidden inside two vehicles—a Hyundai SUV and a Toyota Matrix.
Meanwhile, in Niger State, NDLEA operatives intercepted a truck conveying 176 bags of skunk weighing 2,735 kilogrammes, along with one kilogramme of Colorado, a synthetic cannabis. Officers arrested three suspects in connection with the seizure: Andy Chidogu, 49; Kenneth Ogene, 45; and Sadiq Olanrewaju, 27.