Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted 1,000kg (1 tonne) of cocaine concealed inside a shipping container at Tin Can Island Port in Lagos, in what officials described as the largest drug seizure ever recorded at the terminal.

The drugs were discovered during the disinfection of empty containers imported for re-export, according to Customs Area Controller Joe Anani, who told The Guardian Nigeria that it was the first-ever seizure of “hard” drugs in his unit’s history. The operation was conducted jointly with NDLEA officers and port security personnel.

At current European wholesale pricing, the 1,000kg haul is valued at about $15mn, while Nigerian authorities estimated its local retail value at $235mn — a common discrepancy reflecting domestic valuation practices. The NDLEA has launched an investigation to determine the shipment’s source, shipping line, and intended recipient.

Officials said the seizure highlights Nigeria’s increasing exposure to global cocaine routes. Lagos, alongside ports in Senegal and The Gambia, has become a growing transshipment hub in the Brazil–West Africa–Europe cocaine corridor.

According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), Balkan criminal groups — particularly from Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Montenegro — have established bases in West Africa to facilitate maritime trafficking.

“Four key factors make West Africa an increasingly attractive hub for cocaine trafficking: geography, gaps in governance, weak law enforcement collaboration and ever-stronger transport infrastructure,” researchers for GI-TOC wrote in a 2025 report.

The NDLEA cautioned that investigations were ongoing and that it had not yet established direct links between the Lagos seizure and any foreign criminal networks. The agency said it would expand cooperation with customs and international partners to curb the use of Nigeria’s maritime gateways for transatlantic smuggling.

The bust comes amid a string of major operations by NDLEA, including the 2022 Ikorodu warehouse raid and 2023 Apapa Port seizure, underscoring the scale of narcotics trafficking through the Gulf of Guinea. Authorities said the latest confiscation at Tin Can Island was “unprecedented” in both scale and sophistication, reflecting traffickers’ evolving tactics to bypass port surveillance.