NDLEA seizes 8,852 kg of cannabis after gunfight on Lagos beach road
NDLEA officers ambushed two trucks on Eleko Beach Road in Lekki on 4 May 2023 and seized 8,852 kg of imported cannabis known as Canadian Loud after a 30-minute gunfight; the drivers and armed escorts fled, so no arrests were made.
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) officers acting on intelligence
laid an ambush along Eleko Beach Road in Lekki, Lagos, and flagged down two
long trucks at about 4.51am on Thursday 4 May 2023.[1][2]The trucks,
escorted by armed men, sped off instead of stopping, and an exchange of
gunfire lasting about 30 minutes followed before the officers overpowered the
escorts.[1][2]
The drivers and armed escorts fled into the bush, abandoning the trucks and
202 bags holding 8,852 kg of Canadian Loud, an imported cannabis strain: 149
jumbo bags weighing 6,548 kg in the red truck and 53 bags weighing 2,304 kg
in the blue one.[1][2]NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said officers were on
the trail of the importer who shipped the consignment into the country.[1][2]
No arrests were reported at the scene; the drivers and escorts escaped into the bush and officers said they were trailing the importer.
The same articles report separate 88.3 kg and 58.7 kg seizures in Lagos that week, different events left out here.
Outlets call Canadian Loud an imported synthetic strain of cannabis; the opened accounts describe it as cannabis for the domestic market, not a synthetic cannabinoid.
NDLEA operatives stopped a car on the Auchi-Ibillo Road in Akoko Edo, Edo State, and seized 19 bags of cannabis weighing 201 kg in a roundup of cannabis seizures reported on 8 November 2026. The same roundup reported a Benin City drug-joint raid, three arrests at a Taraba checkpoint with 226.255 kg of compressed cannabis, and further raids in Ondo and Lagos.
NDLEA operatives recovered 1,818 kg of cannabis packed in 148 bags in a raid on Odofin Road, Uso, in Ondo State, destroyed a one-hectare cannabis farm in Board Forest and recovered a further 242 kg. Officers arrested 36-year-old Itoro Linus Akpan in operations reported on 8 November 2026.
NDLEA officers found 16.15 kg of Loud cannabis hidden in two wooden sofas from Houston at Lagos airport on 4 November 2026. A freight agent who came to clear the cargo and a caterer who came to collect it were arrested.
NDLEA officers at Lagos airport found 1.20 kilogrammes of cannabis in two of nine parcels hidden in cartons of snacks from the United Kingdom, and arrested a 51-year-old freight agent who came to clear them. The other seven parcels held chemicals for making synthetic cannabis, and a sting in late October 2026 led to a second arrest.