Chiemelie Ezeobi
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has broken up an international cocaine trafficking ring that used Nigeria as a transit point for shipments bound for the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe, and Asia, arresting the syndicate’s Nigerian ringleader as he tried to leave the country.
NDLEA Chairman Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) announced the operation at a Lagos press briefing, calling it one of the agency’s most significant narcotics investigations and citing the seizure as the largest cocaine haul ever recovered from a courier company in Nigeria.
The case began when NDLEA operatives intercepted 184.5 kilograms of cocaine hidden within a courier logistics shipment in Lagos, a consignment the cartel allegedly hoped would net roughly ₦39 billion through its international distribution network.
Marwa said the scale of the seizure prompted him to set up a Special Investigation Team tasked with tracing the operation from couriers up to the masterminds behind it.
Working with the courier company’s management, investigators unraveled a network of intermediary firms and individuals, leading to the arrest of two key suspects. The first, Lawal Mujab Kehinde, a staff member at the logistics firm used to move the drugs, is said to have had a direct, ongoing relationship with the cartel’s Nigerian coordinator and was paid in cash to package and route shipments to the UK, Europe, and Asia.
The second and more prominent suspect, Afolabi Kazeem Michael, known online as “KC Luxury,” was identified as the cartel’s Nigerian leader. Marwa said Afolabi used his public persona as a jewelry and luxury-goods dealer to mask a criminal enterprise moving cocaine from South America through Nigeria to the UK and beyond.
According to Marwa, Afolabi did not surrender voluntarily. Acting on intelligence that he planned to flee to Paris on a business-class flight, operatives arrested him at the boarding gate of Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on the night of August 13.
He was found carrying €7,750, £2,800, and ₦100,000 in cash, along with expensive jewelry. A follow-up search of his Banana Island apartment in Ikoyi turned up several exotic vehicles.
Marwa said the cartel had used false identities to disguise shipment origins and relied on financial facilitators who moved large sums on its behalf, and that some of its UK-based contacts have already been arrested by British authorities in a coordinated action.
He warned that trafficking organizations are increasingly shifting away from seaports and airports, where scrutiny has intensified, toward courier and logistics companies, which he said criminals wrongly assume are less monitored.
He tied the case to other recent takedowns, including a Switzerland-based cartel that laundered drug proceeds through dark web marketplaces, and two Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine labs dismantled in Ogun and Oyo states.
He struck a defiant tone toward traffickers who rely on wealth or image for cover, warning that the agency would pursue suspects “to the departure gate if we must,” and pledged continued efforts to keep Nigeria from being used as a conduit for global narcotics trafficking.