Operatives Nab Female Drug Kingpin In Lagos With 23.5kg Cocaine Stashed In Children’s Room

Twenty months after a cocaine trafficking cartel led by a couple, Toheebat Dauda and Lookman Dauda, was dismantled by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) with multi-billion-naira worth of illicit drugs recovered, another leader of the syndicate, Shodunke Simbiat, who went underground in May 2024, has been apprehended.

She was nabbed in her Lagos home, where an additional 23.5 kilogrammes of the Class A drug were discovered concealed in her children’s room.

According to a press statement released on Sunday by the anti-narcotics agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, the kingpins, Lookman and his queen, Toheebat, were arrested on Saturday, May 25th, 2024, by operatives of a special operations unit of the NDLEA at Ibiye, along the Lagos-Badagry expressway, as they attempted to cross the land border to deliver the consignment to Ghana.

Babafemi stated that at the point of their arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5 kilogrammes were found on them. A swift follow-up operation at their residence at Plot 24/25 OPIC extension, Petedo Road, Agbara, Ogun State, led to the recovery of an additional eight blocks of the same drug weighing 10 kilogrammes, bringing the total weight of the consignment seized from the couple to 57.5 kilogrammes.

The spokesman added that, determined to apprehend all members of the syndicate, NDLEA operatives continued with follow-up intelligence gathering and surveillance on the trans-border drug trafficking organisation.

This led to the identification of Shodunke Simbiat, a 39-year-old female stash keeper, as a key member of the drug trafficking organisation (DTO). Consequently, she was trailed to her residence at 31 Onasanya Street, Surulere, Lagos, on Tuesday, December 9th, 2025.

Babafemi revealed that a thorough search of her home led to the discovery of blocks of cocaine weighing 23.5 kilogrammes, concealed in a black suitcase recovered from her children’s room. She subsequently admitted ownership of this drug consignment, which has an estimated street value of over N5 billion.

In other clampdowns, NDLEA operatives attached to Terminal II, Departure Hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, last Thursday intercepted Nwanwene Destiny, a 36-year-old businessman.

He was found with a total of 1,020 pills of Tramadol 225mg and Tapentadol 200mg concealed in his luggage as he attempted to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Milan, Italy, where he is based.

He claimed that the successful trafficking of the opioids to Italy would have fetched him €200 from the person he was to deliver them to.

At the Seme border in the Badagry area of Lagos, Leocardi Josu, a 48-year-old Beninese national, was arrested by NDLEA officers last Thursday while attempting to cross into Nigeria with 3,400 tablets of Tramadol 225mg. Additionally, a suspect, Abdullahi Adamu, 30, was apprehended along the Okene/Lokoja highway last Friday with 28.4 kilogrammes of skunk (a strain of cannabis) and Colorado (a synthetic cannabis).

In Oyo State, NDLEA operatives last Friday recovered 125,000 capsules of Tramadol and 1,800 ampoules of Pentazocine injection from a Toyota Hiace bus marked XD 592 AWL along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Furthermore, two suspects, Ogunlade Kazeem, 54, and Adeleke Ismail, 30, were arrested last Wednesday with 185.4 kilogrammes of skunk at Challenge motor park, Ibadan.

Babafemi disclosed that a total of 405 kilogrammes of skunk was seized when NDLEA operatives raided the Owena/Ijesha forest in Osun State, where a suspect, Charles James, 45, was apprehended last Friday. On the same day, another suspect, Jamilu Zakari, 42, was arrested with 14,960 pills of Tramadol 225mg at the tollgate along the Abuja-Kaduna highway. The consignment of opioids was concealed in two kolanut sacks (huhun goro) and was being transported from Abuja to Gusau, Zamfara State.

The spokesman stated that across all commands and formations of the agency nationwide, NDLEA officers continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centers, workplaces, and communities, among other locations, over the past week.

Meanwhile, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd) commended the officers and men of the Special Operations Unit, MMIA, Seme, Kogi, Kaduna, Oyo, and Osun commands for their arrests, seizures, and dexterity.

He urged them and their colleagues across the country to remain extra vigilant during the festive season and to uphold the highest standards of professionalism in all their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities throughout this period and beyond.