The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has apprehended a convicted cocaine trafficker who had been operating under the cover of a herbal tea business in Lagos.
According to a statement released by the agency on Sunday, the arrest followed weeks after operatives intercepted a 1.2kg cocaine shipment hidden inside phone chargers at a Lagos courier firm on July 31, 2026.
The package had been bound for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.The suspect, 34-year-old Dunu Bethel Ebubechukwu, was picked up in a sting operation at Article Market, near Trade Fair Market in the Ojo area of Lagos, on September 4.
During questioning, he reportedly confessed to masterminding previous drug shipments and revealed he had ditched his phone’s SIM card upon learning the NDLEA had intercepted his latest consignment.
Investigators found that the suspect had a prior record with the agency. He was first apprehended in 2011 at Murtala Muhammed International Airport after swallowing 900 grams of cocaine and 130 grams of heroin in a bid to travel to Austria, at the time using the name Dunu Chukwuyenre Enoch.
He was convicted and served a five-year prison term before adopting his current alias and returning to trafficking.A raid on his home at 6 Yemishola Street, Ejigbo, turned up phone chargers matching those used in the intercepted shipment — hollowed out internally to conceal narcotics.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives pursued a 20,000-litre fuel tanker with the plate number MKA 960 XC — a vehicle previously known for dodging arrest — in Ondo State on the same Friday after its driver ignored orders to stop. The driver eventually abandoned the truck at a church compound in Ugbe Akoko and escaped on foot.
A search uncovered a hidden compartment holding 165 bags of cannabis, weighing a total of 2,145kg, stashed alongside the tanker’s legitimate fuel load headed for Jos, Plateau State.
Hadizat Giwa