NDLEA Arrests 63-Year-Old Chinese Grandmother At Lagos Airport With 31kg Of Synthetic Cannabis

Ikeja, Lagos State– Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 63-year-old Chinese grandmother, identified as Ting Hung Kiong, for allegedly attempting to smuggle a large consignment of illicit drugs into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.

The arrest was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by the NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi.

According to the agency, the suspect, a Chinese national naturalised in Malaysia, was intercepted on Sunday, May 17, 2026, shortly after arriving in Nigeria from Thailand via Dubai, United Arab Emirates, aboard an Emirates Airline flight.

NDLEA operatives attached to the Terminal 2 Arrival Hall of the Lagos airport reportedly discovered two large travel boxes containing 31 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a potent synthetic strain of cannabis, in her possession.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect travelled from Malaysia to Thailand before heading to Nigeria through the UAE.

During interrogation, the 63-year-old suspect, who claimed to be working as a caregiver in Malaysia, told investigators that her daughter sponsored her trip from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria.

She further stated that she spent two weeks in Thailand before she was handed the illicit drug consignment at the Thailand airport for delivery in Nigeria.

In a related development, the NDLEA also announced the recovery of another major drug shipment at the import shed of the Lagos airport.

The agency said the consignment, which arrived from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight, had been under close surveillance by its operatives before it was eventually handed over by the Nigeria Customs Service on Friday, May 22, 2026.

According to the statement, the shipment contained 29 large cartons loaded with 1,825,710 tablets of Tapentadol 250mg, an opioid drug, with an estimated street value of N2,190,852,000.