Brazilian woman, Ms. Ingrid Rosa Benevides arrested at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja for drugs by operatives of the NDLEA
By Our ReporterÂ
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 30-year-old Brazilian woman, Ms. Ingrid Rosa Benevides, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, for attempting to smuggle N3 billion worth of heroin into Nigeria, concealed in factory-sealed coffee packs.
Benevides, a private security officer in Brazil, was apprehended on Friday, January 23, 2026, upon her arrival on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha, following actionable intelligence. A search of her two checked-in bags uncovered 21 sealed packets of Brazilian coffee, which were later found to contain 30.09 kilograms of heroin—the largest single heroin seizure ever recorded at the Abuja airport. She reportedly told investigators she came to Nigeria under the guise of a holiday.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport intercepted two outbound passengers, Adediran Adedoyin and Afatakpa Ochuko, en route to Istanbul, Turkey, with 3,990 pills of tapentadol and tramaking concealed in food items packed in their luggage.
Also in Lagos, officers of the Marine Command intercepted a wooden boat carrying 44 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud cannabis weighing 1,848 kilograms at Jakande Beach, Lekki, in the early hours of January 22. The shipment had just arrived from Ghana when it was seized.
In Kaduna and Kano states, two suspects—Aminu Ali Baba, 20, and Abdulrasheed Abubakar, 28—were arrested over two bags containing 140 packets of explosives intercepted in a commercial bus along the Kaduna–Zaria highway. Further operations in Zaria led to the arrest of two additional suspects with 120 kilograms of skunk.
As part of efforts to disrupt drug supply lines linked to terrorism, NDLEA operatives in Borno State intercepted 179,590 pills of tramadol and diazepam concealed in sacks of charcoal and animal feed.
The owner of the consignment was later arrested in Maiduguri.
Across several states including Ekiti, Edo, Benue, Niger, Kwara, Delta, Ondo, Oyo, Kano, Lagos and the FCT, the agency recorded multiple arrests involving suspects ranging from a 72-year-old man and a village head to female drug couriers, with seizures running into several tonnes of skunk, thousands of tramadol pills, codeine syrup, pentazocine injections and other illicit substances.
While commending officers involved in the nationwide operations, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), urged personnel to sustain professionalism and intensity in both drug supply reduction and demand reduction efforts.
