Shodunke Simbiat, a suspected Nigerian drug trafficker, has been arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The NDLEA recovered cocaine valued at about ₦5 billion concealed inside her children’s room at her Lagos apartment.
In a statement issued on Sunday, NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said the arrest followed sustained intelligence gathering and surveillance that identified the 39-year-old woman as a key member and stash keeper of a trans-border drug trafficking organisation.
According to the statement, operatives tracked Simbiat to her residence at 31 Onasanya Street, Surulere, Lagos, on Tuesday, December 9, 2025.
“A thorough search of her home led to the discovery of blocks of cocaine weighing 23.50 kilograms, concealed in a black suitcase recovered from her children’s room. She admitted ownership of the drug consignment, valued at over ₦5bn in street value,” Babafemi said.
The NDLEA noted that the arrest came about 20 months after operatives dismantled a cocaine cartel led by Bolanle Lookman Dauda and Olayinka Toheebat Dauda, from whom multi-billion-naira worth of cocaine was seized in 2024.
The couple was arrested on May 25, 2024, along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway while attempting to cross the land border to Ghana. At the time of their arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5 kilograms were recovered.
A follow-up operation at their residence in Agbara, Ogun State, led to the recovery of eight additional blocks weighing 10 kilograms, bringing the total seizure from the couple to 57.5 kilograms.
In a separate operation at the Terminal II departure hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, NDLEA operatives on Thursday arrested a 36-year-old businessman, Nwanwene Robinson Destiny, while attempting to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Milan, Italy.
The agency said 1,020 pills of Tramadol 225mg and Tapentadol 200mg were found concealed in his luggage. The suspect reportedly confessed that he was to be paid €200 for delivering the opioids in Italy.
At the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, NDLEA officers on Thursday, December 18, arrested a 48-year-old Beninese national, Leocardi Josu, who was attempting to enter Nigeria with 3,400 tablets of Tramadol 225mg.
Similarly, a suspect, Abdullahi Adamu, 30, was arrested along the Okene–Lokoja highway with 28.4 kilograms of skunk and Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis, on Friday, December 19.
In Oyo State, NDLEA operatives recovered 125,000 capsules of Tramadol and 1,800 ampoules of pentazocine injection from a Toyota Hiace bus along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Two suspects, Ogunlade Kazeem, 54, and Adeleke Ismail, 30, were arrested with 185.4 kilograms of skunk at Challenge Motor Park, Ibadan.
In Osun State, operatives seized 405 kilograms of skunk during a raid on the Owena/Ijesha forest, where a 45-year-old suspect, Charles James, was arrested on December 19.
On the same day, another suspect, Jamilu Zakari, 42, was arrested at a tollgate along the Abuja–Kaduna highway with 14,960 pills of Tramadol 225mg concealed in two sacks of kolanuts while travelling from Abuja to Gusau, Zamfara State.
Commending the officers involved in the operations, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa, urged personnel to remain vigilant during the festive season and sustain professionalism in both drug supply and demand reduction efforts.
