NDLEA Arrests South African Woman Travelling With Three-Year-Old Son Over 5.75kg Heroin

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, Will Jessica Ann, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, for allegedly trafficking 5.75 kilograms of heroin while travelling with her three-year-old son.

The anti-narcotics agency alleged that the suspect used the presence of her young son as a cover in an attempt to evade thorough security screening.

NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, saying operatives recovered 14 large blocks of heroin concealed in the suspect’s luggage.

According to the agency, Ann was arrested on Monday, 6 July 2026, during the inward clearance of passengers aboard Qatar Airways flight QR 1433 from Doha to Abuja.

The NDLEA said the suspect initially denied travelling with checked-in luggage. However, operatives established that the tags on two bags containing the illicit drugs corresponded with the baggage claim tags attached to her passport.

Confronted with the evidence, she reportedly admitted ownership of the luggage, claiming she had forgotten that she checked in the two bags.

The suspect was said to have travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
Preliminary intelligence, according to the NDLEA, indicated that Ann is allegedly a member of a transnational drug trafficking organisation operating with her husband or partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, who is based in Cambodia.

The agency alleged that the network operates along the Cambodian-South African drug trafficking axis.

In a separate operation at Terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, NDLEA operatives intercepted a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle operator, Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, following his arrival from Madagascar through Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

Chinadu, who claimed to have worked as an ‘Okada’ rider in the Oke-Afo area of Lagos for 15 years, was arrested on 28 June 2026 after a search of his checked-in backpack led to the discovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed among clothes.

According to the agency, the suspect claimed that a friend based in Uganda recruited him into drug trafficking.

He reportedly told investigators that he ingested pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on a journey to Madagascar, where he was expected to deliver the drug consignment.

However, immigration authorities in Madagascar allegedly denied him entry into the country.

The NDLEA said the suspect’s alleged sponsor, identified as Ozor Igo and based in Uganda, subsequently rerouted his flight to Lagos, where he was arrested by anti-narcotics officers.

As Chinadu could not state the exact number of drug pellets he had ingested, NDLEA operatives placed him under excretion observation for three days.

Between the date of his arrest and 1 July, the suspect excreted 13 additional pellets. The recovered drugs, including the initial 87 wraps found in his backpack, brought the total seizure to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms.

Meanwhile, the NDLEA has announced the seizure of more than N10.3 billion worth of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, at the Apapa seaport in Lagos.

The agency said 8,287 nylon bags of the substance, weighing 4,143.5 kilograms, were discovered in a container imported from Canada.

The consignment was uncovered during a joint examination by NDLEA operatives, Nigeria Customs Service personnel and other security agencies on Friday, 10 July 2026.

According to the agency, the seizure followed weeks of targeted tracking and monitoring of the shipment from its departure point in Montreal, Canada.

Operatives of the NDLEA Maritime Intelligence Unit reportedly monitored the consignment in collaboration with the agency’s Apapa Strategic Command before the eventual interception.

In another operation, officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation thwarted an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk, another strain of cannabis, to Cyprus through a courier company in Lagos.

The illicit drug was concealed in a gas compressor in an attempt to evade detection, the agency said.

Beyond its drug supply reduction operations, the NDLEA said its commands and formations continued sensitisation activities under the War Against Drug Abuse campaign in schools, workplaces, worship centres and communities across the country.

The agency conducted enlightenment programmes for students and staff of Nnodo Secondary School, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State; Government Girls Secondary School, Sabon Gida, Sharada, Kano State; Royal Jesuit College, Agbado Ekiti; and Community Secondary School, Idofa, Ogun State.

The leadership of the NDLEA Zone 14 Command also paid a WADA advocacy visit to the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, at the Government House in Port Harcourt.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brigadier-General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, MMIA, NAIA, Maritime Intelligence Unit and Apapa commands for the arrests and seizures.

Marwa said the agency’s drug supply reduction operations must continue to be balanced with sustained public sensitisation and prevention campaigns.

He charged officers and personnel of the NDLEA nationwide not to rest on their past achievements but to intensify efforts against drug trafficking and abuse across the country.