In a coordinated week long operation across several states, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) dismantled key figures in Nigeria’s cross border drug smuggling rings, confiscating over 3.4 tonnes of cannabis strains, including Colorado, Loud, and Skunk, along with more than 645,000 opioid pills in Lagos, Nasarawa, Kano, Gombe, and Edo States.
The most high profile arrest took place in Lagos, where operatives, following months of monitoring, captured Prophet Adefolusho Aanu Olasele, founder and General Overseer of The Turn of Mercy Church, for allegedly organizing multiple cannabis shipments from Ghana into Nigeria.
NDLEA agents made their move moments after his Sunday service on 3rd August 2025 at the church in Okun Ajah, ending a manhunt that had dragged on for weeks, during which he twice slipped away and fled to Ghana.
According to NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, the cleric is linked to the smuggling of 200kg of “Ghana Loud” cannabis seized at Okun Ajah beach on 4th June, and another 700kg recovered from his delivery van on 6th July.
Elsewhere in Lagos, NDLEA stormed an Ikoyi apartment on 7th August, arresting Benjamin Udo Ukoh with 32 pouches of Canadian Loud weighing 15.63kg.
In Nasarawa State on 9th August, operatives intercepted a huge 3,093kg Skunk haul from three suspects at New Karu.Kano operations led to the arrest of one man with 359kg of Skunk, another with 9kg of Colorado, and a third found with 20,000 Tramadol pills and Diazepam injections.
In Gombe, a raid at Tudun Wadan Pantami exposed over 550,000 opioid pills, followed the next day by another arrest with more Tramadol.
In Edo State, NDLEA intercepted a bus coming from Anambra loaded with 23,940 Tramadol capsules, other opioids, and injection ampoules.
Commending the state Commands for their work, NDLEA Chairman, retired Brigadier General Buba Marwa, urged officers to maintain the agency’s dual strategy of impactful enforcement alongside continuous public sensitisation.
