Video: NDLEA busts Brazil returnee hiding cocaine in thigh, shoe soles
Abdullateef Fowewe
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a Brazil-based Nigerian businessman at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja-Lagos after discovering cocaine stashed in his private parts and footwear.
Uche Franklin Onyekwere, a 47-year-old resident of Rua Ever, Mulariuha, São Paulo, was nabbed on Thursday, January 29, 2026, during clearance of a South African Airways flight from Brazil via Johannesburg.
As revealed in a statement on Sunday by Femi Babafemi, NDLEA Director of Media & Advocacy, a body scan flagged suspicions, leading to a strip search that uncovered a large parcel of white powdery substance—testing positive for cocaine—wrapped around his right thigh.
Two more wraps hid in the soles of his flat shoes, totalling 1.60 kilograms.
In a preliminary interview, Onyekwere confessed, “he purchased the illicit drug consignment in Brazil with the intention to resell the cocaine in Nigeria in order to raise capital to boost his business and also finance the naming ceremony of his newly born child.”
He has lived in Brazil since 2008 and run a toy business for nine years.
The busts didn’t stop there. At Tincan Seaport in Lagos on January 28, NDLEA officers, alongside Customs and security agencies, uncovered 55 jumbo bags of “Canadian Loud”—a potent cannabis strain—weighing 1,183 kilograms.
The drugs were concealed in a Hyundai SUV and Toyota Matrix inside a container from Montreal, Canada.
Raids across states yielded more hauls: over 9,939kg of “Loud,” “Colos,” and “Skunk” cannabis seized in Lagos, Niger, Edo, Anambra, and Ondo.
In Kano, 12,500 ampoules of pentazocine injection were recovered.
NDLEA Chairman/CEO Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) praised the teams.
“While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Tincan, Niger, Lagos, Edo, Anambra, Ondo, and Kano Commands for the arrests, seizures and their professionalism… enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to continue the current balanced approach to their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts,” the statement noted.
