The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has dismantled an international cocaine trafficking network, arresting an Ivorian national caught swallowing drugs at a Nigerian airport and a 69-year-old Nigerian medical doctor who allegedly coordinated the operation from Ogun State.
NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi disclosed the arrests in a statement on Sunday, April 12th 2026, describing them as part of efforts to unravel local collaborators of an international drug syndicate.
The Ivorian suspect, Gohouri Michael also known as Anunwa Onyinye Michael aged 41, was arrested on February 16, 2026, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET940 to Milan, Malpensa, via Addis Ababa.
He was found to have ingested 82 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.49kg.
Gohouri had arrived in Lagos from Milan on January 17, 2026, and spent three weeks shuttling between Lagos and Enugu before travelling to Kano, where he spent a week and swallowed the cocaine consignment in his hotel room. He was to be paid 5,000 euros upon delivering the drugs in Milan.
The arrest of the courier cracked open a wider network. Punch reports how further investigation by NDLEA revealed that Gohouri had a shadowy figure behind the scenes giving him instructions on how to move the cocaine consignment through the airport.
That figure was eventually identified as Dr Chudi Daniel Ofomata, a 69-year-old medical doctor, who was tracked to his residence at Teachers’ Land Estate, Magboro, Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, where he was arrested on March 27, 2026, and subsequently flown to Kano on April 7.
Recovered from him at the point of arrest were 63 grams of promazepam and seven ampoules of promethazine injection.
NDLEA Chairman, Mohamed Buba Marwa, commended officers involved in the operations, noting that the agency remains focused on both enforcement and prevention as part of its War Against Drug Abuse campaign.
The cocaine bust was part of a wider nationwide crackdown. Other operations in the same period covered Lagos, Ogun, Abia, Edo, Niger, Imo, Borno, and the Federal Capital Territory, leading to the seizure of large quantities of illicit drugs including over 7,245 kilograms of skunk intercepted in Edo State hidden among cartons of beer, and over 42,000 tablets of Rohypnol uncovered in Borno State concealed inside a truck carrying vehicle spare parts.
