Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, Will Jessica Ann, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into Nigeria while travelling with her three-year-old son, as the agency also intercepted a N10.3 billion shipment of cannabis at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos.
The South African national was arrested on Monday, July 6, 2026, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR1433 from Doha.
According to the NDLEA, the suspect initially denied travelling with any checked luggage. However, officers established that two bags containing the illicit drugs bore baggage tags matching those attached to her passport.
The agency said the suspect later admitted ownership of the bags, claiming she had forgotten she checked them in.
A search of the luggage uncovered 14 large blocks of heroin weighing 5.75kg, concealed inside the bags. Investigators alleged that the suspect had travelled with her three-year-old son in an attempt to avoid suspicion and reduce the likelihood of thorough security screening.
During interrogation, the suspect told investigators she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
According to intelligence gathered by the agency, she is allegedly a member of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating between Cambodia and South Africa, alongside her husband or partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, who is said to be based in Cambodia.
In a separate operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, NDLEA operatives arrested Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, after his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
The agency said a search of his checked backpack led to the recovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine hidden inside clothing.
According to the suspect, he had worked as an Okada rider in the Oke-Afa area of Lagos for 15 years before a friend based in Uganda allegedly recruited him into drug trafficking.
He reportedly confessed that he swallowed additional pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on the trip to Madagascar to deliver the drugs.
However, he claimed he was denied entry into Madagascar by immigration authorities, prompting his alleged sponsor, identified as Ozor Igo, to reroute him to Lagos, where he was arrested upon arrival.
Unable to state the exact number of pellets he had ingested, the suspect was placed under medical observation. Between the date of his arrest and July 1, he excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total seizure to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms.
In another major breakthrough, NDLEA operatives at the Apapa Seaport intercepted 8,287 nylon bags of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, weighing 4,143.5 kilograms with an estimated street value of over N10.3 billion.
The illicit consignment was discovered during a joint examination of a container imported from Canada by NDLEA officers, personnel of the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies on Friday, July 10, 2026.
The agency said the seizure followed weeks of intelligence gathering, surveillance and monitoring by its Maritime Intelligence Unit in collaboration with the Apapa Strategic Command, beginning from the shipment’s departure in Montreal, Canada.
In a related operation, NDLEA officers attached to the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk, another strain of cannabis, concealed inside a gas compressor destined for Cyprus through a Lagos-based courier company.
