71-Year-Old Grandfather Caught With N2.35 Billion Cocaine on West Africa’s Busiest Smuggling Highway

In a stunning interception that has sent shockwaves through West Africa’s drug enforcement community, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has arrested a 71-year-old Nigerian man for allegedly smuggling cocaine worth a staggering N2.35 billion (over $1.5 million USD) along the notorious Abidjan-Lagos Corridor.

The elderly suspect was apprehended by customs officers driving a Toyota Highlander packed with 6.35kg of pure cocaine, according to Comptroller Gambo Aliyu, who handed over the illicit haul to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Tuesday in Lagos.

The Abidjan-Lagos Corridor is the region’s economic jugular a bustling highway connecting Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire. But as this bust reveals, it’s also a superhighway for cartels moving narcotics across borders.

But that’s not all.

In a massive eight-week operation spanning Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, and Ondo states, customs operatives also seized:

· 3,340 parcels of synthetic cannabis (1,540kg) under ‘Operation Hawk’ · Four cylinders of mercury (80kg each)—a toxic substance banned under the Minamata Convention · Large quantities of petrol, explosives, and ‘Ghana Loud’ · Total value of all seizures: over N5.5 billion

The agency also recovered N97.7 million from underpaid duties and foiled 473 smuggling attempts.

NDLEA Commander Ibrahim Kabiru praised the operation, saying: “I formally received two parcels of suspected cocaine weighing 2.30kg, four parcels of crack cocaine weighing 4.05kg, 3,340 cannabis parcels, and three suspects.”

But here’s the bigger picture. Just last week, NDLEA operatives raided three illicit drug warehouses in Lagos and seized opioids valued at a jaw-dropping N16.9 billion a stark reminder that West Africa is becoming a major transit hub for global narcotics.

With customs now deploying drone surveillance, satellite imagery, and predictive analytics, one question haunts regional security experts: If a 71-year-old can move billions in cocaine undetected, who else is using the corridor?