The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 101-year-old woman, Esther Ogunmabo, for allegedly dealing in illicit drugs in Ilisan, Ogun State.
Ogunmabo, described by the agency as a great-grandmother, was arrested on Saturday, August 15, 2026, with 90 grammes of skunk, a strain of cannabis, packaged in retail sachets.
According to the spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, the centenarian told operatives that she turned to the illicit drug trade after her provisions shop was destroyed by fire.
She reportedly disclosed that one of her daughters, who lives in Lagos, supplied her with the cannabis every four days, which she subsequently sold in small quantities to residents of her community.
Following her arrest, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.), directed that Ogunmabo be granted bail and subjected to counselling in view of her advanced age.
The agency also arrested the woman’s daughter in connection with the alleged drug trade.
The arrest was contained in a statement issued by Babafemi on Sunday, as the NDLEA announced several arrests and major drug seizures recorded across the country.
In another major operation, the NDLEA announced what it described as its first-ever seizure of illicit drugs shipped from Thailand into Nigeria through the country’s maritime corridor.
The agency intercepted two containers containing cannabis indica, popularly known as Loud, at the Apapa and Lekki ports, with a combined street value estimated at more than ₦4.4 billion.
According to the NDLEA, both containers originated from the Port of Laem Chabang in Thailand, indicating the emergence of a new trafficking route allegedly being exploited by drug syndicates to smuggle synthetic cannabis into Nigeria.
At the Apapa Port, a container declared to contain dry fish, rice, vehicle spare parts, turmeric soap and inverter batteries was subjected to a joint examination by operatives of the NDLEA, the Nigeria Customs Service and other relevant agencies on Friday, August 21.
During the inspection, the operatives reportedly uncovered 1,090.5 kilogrammes of Thai Loud packed in 54 cartons containing 2,181 sachets of 500 grammes each.
Similarly, at the Lekki Deep Sea Port, another container that had been placed on the NDLEA watchlist was monitored by the agency’s Marine Special Operations Unit before it was jointly examined on Wednesday, August 19.
The examination revealed that four of seven pallets wrapped in black nylon contained 96 cartons comprising 400 parcels of Thai Loud weighing 400 kilogrammes.
The remaining three pallets contained 798 rims of A4 paper, which the agency said were used to conceal the illicit drug consignment.
The latest operations underscore the NDLEA’s continued efforts to dismantle drug trafficking networks and block emerging routes being used by syndicates to smuggle illicit substances into Nigeria.
