NDLEA uncovers illicit drugs in full body mannequins en route Cameroon, Arrest 80 year old ex-convict.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 37-year-old businessman, Ani Onyebuchi Romans, while trafficking 5.3 kilograms of tramadol concealed in full-body mannequins to Cameroon.
The agency disclosed this in a statement by Femi Babafemi, Director of Media & Advocacy at NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, on Sunday, 11th January 2026.
The arrest highlights growing cross-border opioid trafficking and the creative methods used to evade law enforcement.
NDLEA explained that Romans was intercepted on Oron-Ibaka road, Oron Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, while returning from the Christmas and New Year holidays.
“The suspect claims he resides in Cameroon and was reportedly returning to his base after the Christmas and New Year holidays when he was apprehended. It was revealed that he bought the drugs in Onitsha, Anambra state and was trafficking them to Cameroun to sell, using two mannequins to conceal the opioids,” the agency stated.
The agency emphasized that the operation reflects its intensified surveillance and intelligence-led interventions against the illicit drug supply.
In another operation, barely three years after serving a two-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, 80-year-old Jeremiah Isaiah Nkanta was apprehended again by NDLEA operatives for returning to the illicit drug trade.
Nkanta returned to the illicit drug trade and, following credible intelligence, NDLEA operatives on Saturday, 10th January 2025, tracked the Octogenarian ex-convict to his Mmanta – Abak village, Abak local government area of Akwa Ibom state, where he was arrested with 5.7 kilograms of skunk, a strain of cannabis, in his residence
