Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A 33-year-old businessman, Eze Prince Emeka, has been arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) after he excreted 45 pellets of cocaine intended for transport along a gruelling overland route through the Sahara Desert to Europe. During a routine stop along the Ibadan-Oyo expressway, NDLEA officers intercepted the commercial bus in which Emeka was travelling from Oyo State to Sokoto State. Acting on suspicion, the officers took him for a body scan, which confirmed the presence of foreign objects in his stomach. The suspect was then placed under close excretion observation, during which he expelled 45 wraps of cocaine with a total weight of 1.043 kilograms in three separate excretions.
Investigations revealed that Emeka, who owns a business in Sokoto, had devised a crude and hazardous method to circumvent airport security. Realising that airports were now too dangerous for drug mules, he opted to ingest the cocaine pellets and travel by road from southern Nigeria all the way to the northern border. His plan was to excrete the pellets upon arrival in Sokoto, rest for a few days, and then re‑ingest the drugs to continue his journey across the vast Sahara Desert towards Europe, with Algeria designated as a key transit point. This trip was to be his last before a final delivery. The suspect’s decision to travel by road ties into a wider trend the NDLEA is now battling: the shift from air to overland trafficking.
NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi described the method as “appalling” and questioned the extreme risks that traffickers are now willing to take. “They have now resorted to ingesting illicit drugs to travel by road from the south to the north and through the desert to North Africa and ultimately Europe, with about three stops to excrete and re‑ingest,” Babafemi said. The development has prompted the NDLEA to issue a nationwide alert, warning that traffickers are increasingly turning to highways after intensified surveillance and advanced detection tools made airports almost impossible to breach. The agency has now intensified its monitoring of major roads across the country, predicting a rise in what it described as “roadside excretion” of illicit drugs.
The arrest of Emeka coincides with the NDLEA’s ongoing crackdown on a variety of drug networks. In a separate but related operation in Kwara State, officers intercepted Captagon, a synthetic amphetamine often linked to insurgent and terrorist groups, along with 10,000 pills of the drug and several packs of opioids. In a video released by the NDLEA, officers in red uniforms are seen conducting a roadside intervention, recovering multiple yellowish, condom-wrapped pellets excreted by a suspect. The substances were then laid out on a wooden table for documentation and field testing using chemical reagents, which produced characteristic colour reactions to confirm the presence of narcotics. The videos are now being used for training purposes and to apprise the public of the evolving tactics of criminal networks.
NDLEA Chairman Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.) has vowed zero tolerance for emerging drug trafficking methods. He noted that the captured shipment of Captagon, in particular, was not just a drug bust but a disruption of the fuel that powers violence in communities. “We are not just seizing pills; we are disrupting the fuel that powers violence in our communities,” Marwa stated. He further emphasised that the balance between drug supply reduction and public sensitisation remains key to winning the fight against drug abuse and trafficking in Nigeria. As the agency continues to dismantle syndicates using both air and land routes, the case of Eze Prince Emeka stands as a stark warning of the deadly risks traffickers are taking – and the agency’s determination to stop them before they reach the desert.
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