Drug bust: NDLEA nets Canadian woman with 35kg ‘Canadian Loud’ at Lagos Airport

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

In a dramatic bust at Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), a 41-year-old Canadian woman, Adrienne Munju, has been arrested for attempting to smuggle a hefty consignment of “Canadian Loud,” a potent strain of synthetic cannabis, into Nigeria.

The arrest, made by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), unfolded during routine passenger clearance for a KLM flight from Canada on Thursday, October 3, 2024.

NDLEA‘s spokesman, Femi Babafemi in a statement on Sunday said as officers conducted a joint examination of Munju’s luggage at Terminal 1, they discovered 74 parcels of the illicit drug, weighing an alarming 35.20 kilogrammes, tightly concealed within two of her three suitcases.

It was Munju’s first time visiting Nigeria, but her plans unravelled as officers exposed her dangerous cargo.

In a statement following her arrest, Adrienne revealed she had been recruited through an online platform and promised a payment of 10,000 Canadian dollars upon successful delivery of the drugs in Lagos.

Desperate to fund her ongoing master’s degree in Canada, she had accepted the high-risk offer.

In a related operation, NDLEA officers at the Tincan seaport in Lagos intercepted an even larger consignment of Canadian Loud the same day.

Concealed inside a container loaded with four imported vehicles from Canada, officers uncovered 100 parcels of the synthetic drug weighing 50 kilogrammes.

The drugs had been hidden in five jumbo bags, strategically stashed inside a Toyota Sienna bus. Although the container had already been cleared from the ESS Libra Bonded Terminal in Ikorodu, sharp intelligence led operatives to trace it to a warehouse, where the illegal haul was found.

One suspect, Abubakar Shuaibu Ibrahim, has been arrested in connection with the seaport seizure, as NDLEA intensifies its crackdown on the rising influx of synthetic drugs into the country.