Nigeria seizes 47,200 captagon pills, agency says

Nigeria's anti-drug agency said Sunday it intercepted 47,200 captagon pills and millions of opioids concealed in soap from Ghana.

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency spokesman Femi Babafemi said a suspect, Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, brought in the shipment and claimed after his arrest that he was meant to deliver it in northern Nigeria.

Babafemi put the street value of the drugs at 1.5 billion naira, about $1.1 million.

Captagon is a stimulant. It has been nicknamed the "jihadi drug" because of its reported use in funding extremist activity in conflict zones.

Nigeria has been battling a jihadist insurgency in the northeast since 2009, as well as violence by non-ideological bandit gangs that kidnap for ransom in the northwest and north-central regions.

The NDLEA seized 451,807 captagon tablets at a port in Lagos in September 2021 and another 10,000 pills in north-central Kwara State in April.