Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested a wanted drug kingpin, Yussuf Abayomi Azeez, 40, at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, while attempting to board a flight to Saudi Arabia for Umrah.
According to the NDLEA, Azeez had been under surveillance for months before his arrest on Thursday, November 6, 2025. The agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said the suspect had previously been arrested and charged for drug-related offences in the United Kingdom but jumped bail and fled to Nigeria.
Upon arrival in Lagos, Azeez allegedly set up a large secret laboratory in the Lekki area and started producing Colorado, a strong synthetic cannabis, along with other illicit substances.
Operatives of NDLEA stormed the suspect’s lab at 17 Vincent Eku Street, Ogombo, Lekki, where they dismantled the equipment used in making the illicit substance, seized precursor chemicals, and recovered 148.3 kilograms of Colorado. He was arrested alongside another suspect, 43-year-old Abideen Kekere-Ekun.
However, in a related operation, NDLEA operatives acting on joint intelligence with the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies seized 105.5 kg of ‘Molly’, a designer drug, and 500 grams of methamphetamine while conducting a joint examination of a shipment at the Sifax bonded terminal in Okota, Lagos, on Friday, November 7.
In a related development in Niger State, operatives intercepted a Volvo truck along the Kainji–Wawa road loaded with 87,000 pills of tramadol and 72 kilograms of skunk. The driver, 35-year-old Ibrahim Mohammed, was arrested and taken into custody.
