BENIN CITY, Edo — A joint raid by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and Nigerian Army personnel on a notorious drug hub in Edo State has exposed yet another deep-rooted cannabis trafficking network in the state, with operatives recovering 604.5kg of cannabis and arresting nine suspected drug dealers in separate operations.
The major seizure was made on 5 August 2026 at a suspected illicit-drug hub in Ewe, Luleha, Owan West Local Government Area, where 65 bags containing dried cannabis were recovered.
The operation has also triggered a manhunt for a suspected drug kingpin identified by the NDLEA as Sunday, who allegedly escaped before security operatives could apprehend him.
The Edo State Commander of the NDLEA, Mitchell Ofoyeju, disclosed the development in a statement issued on Monday, describing the seizure as a significant strike against drug trafficking networks operating across the state.
According to Ofoyeju, the recovered substance tested positive for skunk cannabis, a form of cannabis frequently intercepted by the agency in large-scale trafficking operations.
“The operation carried out by men of the NDLEA and personnel of the Nigerian Army resulted in the seizure of 65 bags of dried weeds that tested positive for skunk cannabis, weighing 604.5kg,” Ofoyeju said.
He said investigators were already pursuing the suspected kingpin who allegedly fled the location after the raid.
“We are tracking the suspected drug kingpin, one Sunday, who is in hiding following the recovery of the 604.5kg of cannabis in the operation. He has nowhere to hide because we will certainly apprehend him,” he said.
The development is significant not merely because of the size of the seizure, but because of the location involved.
Owan West: A recurring cannabis trafficking corridor
Available NDLEA records show that the latest operation did not occur in an isolated vacuum.
Owan West has repeatedly emerged in NDLEA intelligence-led operations as an important area for cannabis cultivation, processing, storage and trafficking.
In September 2025, NDLEA officers destroyed cannabis farms covering more than 4.5 hectares in Atororo forest, Owan West, with an estimated yield of over 11.3 tonnes and 148kg of processed cannabis and seeds recovered. Three suspects were arrested during that operation.
In July 2025, the agency also raided the Ewere forest in Owan West, where a wanted suspect was arrested at one of his alleged cannabis farms and 115kg of processed skunk recovered. Three other suspects were arrested at a separate farm.
The pattern goes back further. In November 2023, NDLEA recovered 42 bags of skunk weighing 480kg from a camp in Aviosi forest, also in Owan West, while destroying another cannabis farm in Edo.
In October 2023, NDLEA operatives stormed the Orue forest in Owan West, arresting two suspects inside a cannabis farm measuring more than 2.3 hectares and recovering processed skunk.
The geographical pattern becomes even more striking when viewed alongside the January 2025 interception of a 40-foot trailer load containing 2,217.6kg of skunk in Abuja. NDLEA said that consignment had been loaded in Uzebba, an area of Owan West, before being moved northwards for distribution.
That history raises an uncomfortable security question: how deeply entrenched are cannabis trafficking networks in Edo’s forest and rural communities, and how many consignments escape detection before enforcement agencies arrive?
The latest 604.5kg seizure may therefore represent only the visible end of a much larger supply chain.
Nine suspects arrested across Edo
While the Luleha operation produced the largest single seizure, the NDLEA said nine suspected drug dealers — five men and four women — were arrested in separate operations at drug hotspots across Edo State.
Among them was 58-year-old Musa Muhammed, a Bauchi State indigene, who was allegedly found with 280 grammes of Cannabis sativa, 35 grammes of Loud and 1.4 grammes of Colorado.
The agency also reported the arrest of 55-year-old Ebere Anthony, from Delta State, who was allegedly found with 1.5kg of Cannabis sativa.
A 31-year-old suspect identified as Gift Oliseyenum, also from Delta State, was allegedly arrested with 74 grammes of Cannabis sativa, 45 grammes of Loud, 2.5 grammes of Colorado and 4.7 grammes of methamphetamine.
Another suspect, 27-year-old Boniface George, was allegedly found with 195 grammes of Cannabis sativa.
The NDLEA said 28-year-old Muzamilu Mustapha, from Katsina State, was arrested with 40 grammes of Loud and 80 grammes of Cannabis sativa.
Also arrested were 27-year-old Faustina Peter and 36-year-old Chucks Odili, both from Delta State.
According to Ofoyeju, Peter was allegedly found with 35 grammes of Loud, 10 grammes of Colorado and 0.8 grammes of methamphetamine, while Odili was allegedly arrested with 1kg of Cannabis sativa, 65 grammes of Loud and 15 grammes of Colorado.
A 17-year-old suspect from Edo State was also arrested after allegedly being found with 25 grammes of Tramadol.
The ninth suspect, 42-year-old Julius Enebuli, from Delta State, was allegedly caught with 1kg of Cannabis sativa, 65 grammes of Loud and 15 grammes of Colorado, according to the agency.
As with all criminal allegations at the point of arrest, the suspects remain entitled to the presumption of innocence until proved guilty by a court of law.
The bigger security concern behind the cannabis seizures
The immediate temptation is to regard the latest operation simply as another drug seizure.
That would miss the larger picture.
In recent years, NDLEA operations have increasingly revealed cannabis networks operating through remote farms, forest camps, warehouses, rural settlements, urban distribution points and interstate transport corridors.
Edo’s Owan axis is particularly notable because several significant seizures have originated there or in neighbouring communities.
In June 2026, NDLEA reported the recovery of 489kg of skunk and 9kg of cannabis seeds from Igwe community in Owan East following an intelligence-led operation. (NDLEA)
In July, another NDLEA operation in Edo’s Ilushi community, Esan South-East Local Government Area, resulted in the seizure of 1,286kg of cannabis and 86kg of cannabis seeds from a warehouse.
The scale of these seizures suggests that Edo is not merely a market for cannabis. In some locations, it appears to function as a production and supply base feeding wider distribution networks.
That distinction matters.
A trafficking network is not dismantled simply because one warehouse, farm or drug hub is raided. If cultivators, financiers, warehouse operators, transporters, distributors and customers remain in place, another consignment can replace the one seized.
That is why the manhunt for the suspected kingpin identified as Sunday could prove more important than the 604.5kg seizure itself.
Why the Sunday manhunt matters
The NDLEA has not publicly disclosed, in the statement cited here, the suspected kingpin’s surname, network structure, previous arrests, financial transactions or the precise role investigators believe he played in the seized consignment.
Those unanswered questions are crucial.
Was Sunday the owner of the 65 bags?
Was he merely the local coordinator?
Did the 604.5kg represent a single consignment awaiting transportation, or was it part of a continuous supply operation?
Who financed the procurement?
Where was the cannabis destined?
Were vehicles, warehouses or distribution outlets already linked to the operation?
Those are the questions capable of turning a successful raid into an intelligence breakthrough.
The NDLEA’s recent record shows that prolonged tracking can eventually bring major drug fugitives within reach. In January 2026, the agency announced the arrest of long-wanted drug kingpin Lekan Jimoh, popularly known as Kanmo-Kanmo, after a 12-year manhunt. NDLEA said the suspect was eventually tracked to his hideout in Ogun State and found with cannabis.
The lesson is obvious: seizing drugs without dismantling the people and money behind them only solves part of the problem.
Cannabis remains Nigeria’s dominant illicit drug problem
The Edo operation also comes against the backdrop of a much broader national drug challenge.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), said in February 2026 that cannabis remains the country’s most widely available illicit drug.
Citing the 2018 National Drug Use Survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics with technical support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Marwa said an estimated 10.6 million Nigerian adults had reported using cannabis in the previous year. He also said more than 75 per cent of the 15 million kilograms of assorted illicit drugs seized by NDLEA over the previous five years consisted of cannabis.
UNODC’s Nigeria cannabis survey similarly identifies cannabis as the country’s most commonly used illicit drug and notes that cannabis is cultivated for both domestic consumption and export. (UNODC)
The implication is that the war against cannabis cannot be won through seizures alone.
It requires simultaneous pressure on cultivation, trafficking, financing, local distribution, demand and the economic incentives that keep rural communities vulnerable to illicit crop production.
NDLEA pushes for community intelligence
The agency has increasingly stressed that enforcement must be accompanied by community involvement.
In July 2026, Marwa urged traditional rulers, parents and community leaders to help identify drug trafficking activity and make communities hostile environments for drug dealers. He specifically warned communities to scrutinise strangers seeking to acquire farmland, particularly in forested areas, amid the discovery of industrial-scale clandestine drug laboratories elsewhere in the country.
That approach is particularly relevant to Edo’s forest belt.
Where illicit cultivation is hidden in remote locations, agencies cannot rely solely on conventional patrols. Local intelligence, satellite and aerial surveillance, financial investigation, informants and coordinated military-police-drug enforcement operations become increasingly important.
A warning, and a test
The seizure of 604.5kg of cannabis is unquestionably a substantial operational success for the NDLEA and the Nigerian Army.
But it is also a test.
If the suspected kingpin is arrested, investigators recover financial and communications evidence, identify his suppliers and transporters, trace the intended destination of the consignment and disrupt the wider network, the raid could become much more than a seizure.
It could become the beginning of a major dismantling operation.
If, however, the operation ends with nine suspects in custody, 604.5kg in evidence bags and the suspected organiser disappearing into the countryside, the underlying network could simply reorganise.
For Owan West, the history is already telling.
From cannabis farms and forest camps to warehouses and interstate consignments, NDLEA’s own records show that the area has repeatedly featured in major cannabis interdictions.
The real measure of the August 5 raid, therefore, will not be the weight displayed after the operation.
It will be whether the authorities can follow the cannabis trail beyond the bags, to the financiers, organisers, transporters, warehouses and markets that keep the business alive.
Editorial note: The August 5, 2026 Luleha operation and the nine associated arrests are reported here from the statement attributed to Edo NDLEA Commander Mitchell Ofoyeju supplied for this report. At the time of publication, I found NDLEA’s indexed public records corroborating the broader pattern of repeated major cannabis operations in Owan West and elsewhere in Edo, but not a separately indexed headquarters release reproducing every detail of the August 5 statement.
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NDLEA, Army Raid Edo Drug Hub, Seize 604.5kg Cannabis
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NDLEA and Army raid an Edo drug hub, seize 604.5kg cannabis, arrest nine suspects and launch a manhunt for suspected kingpin Sunday.
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A 604.5kg cannabis haul has exposed another suspected layer of Edo’s illicit drug economy. After soldiers and NDLEA operatives stormed a notorious Owan West drug hub, nine suspects were arrested l, but the alleged kingpin escaped. Now the real operation begins: can investigators follow the drugs to the financiers and trafficking network behind them?
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604.5kg of cannabis. 65 bags. Nine suspects in custody. But the man described by NDLEA as the suspected kingpin escaped. The bigger question is unsettling: how many tonnes move through Edo’s forests before security agencies arrive? Owan West has appeared repeatedly in major cannabis seizures. Is this one raid — or a doorway into a much larger network?
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