THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 59-year-old drug baron, Ogbonnaya Kevin Jeff, who had been on the agency’s wanted list for 17 years.
At a press briefing on Monday in Abuja, the Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa, disclosed that Jeff went into hiding while allegedly trafficking illicit drugs worth billions of naira across the globe.
According to Marwa, operatives of the agency’s Special Operations Unit arrested Jeff at his hideout in the Ojo area of Lagos, following an Interpol red notice and intelligence provided by the National Intelligence Service of South Korea.
“On Wednesday, 12th February 2025, we achieved that objective in the successful arrest of Ogbonnaya Kevin Jeff, a 59-year-old drug baron. The suspect was arrested at his hideout at No. 3, Ibukunoluwa Taiwo Close, off LASU Road, Lagos. He has been under the NDLEA investigation before his arrest,” Marwa said.
He noted that his agency had comprehensive intelligence on Jeff’s activities, and ‘incontrovertible facts that he is a notorious drug lord” who recruited young Nigerians as couriers to smuggle illicit substances into the Republic of South Korea.
He added, “We have established that he laundered drug proceeds through the importation of electronics and other goods. Following his arrest, a search of his residence led to the recovery of multiple Nigerian international passports belonging to different individuals, many of which contained Korean visas. Additionally, we recovered some illicit substances in a storehouse at the back of his house,” Marwa said.
Marwa claimed that the suspect was not a typical domestic drug baron, but an international trafficker operating both from Nigeria and abroad.
He said Jeff’s dossier indicated that he served a one-year prison sentence in the Republic of Korea in 2007 and was deported to Nigeria in 2008.
Despite this, the suspect continued his illicit trade, remaining actively involved in drug trafficking operations, Marwa stated.
Giving further insights into the outcome of the NDLEA’s investigations, Marwa said on October 5 2023, at a location in Burkina Faso, the suspect dispatched 6,051.06 grammes of skunk, concealed in dried chillies and jujube, to a Korean, Kim Dong Wook, at a designated address in Jinju City, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.
“In recent times alone, he has sent illicit drugs worth over N1.4bn in street value to South Korea. Ogbonnoya maintains another domestic carrier, identified as ‘Asa’, who delivers for him drug consignments to a warehouse operated by Okori Emmanuel, a Nigerian who is his supply manager in South Korea. As of now, two arrest warrants have been issued against Ogbonnaya by the Seoul Central District Court in January and June 2024.”
The ICIR reported that NDLEA said it arrested 14,480 drug traffickers and seized 2.4 million kilogrammes of illicit drugs in January and October 2024 at seaports, airports, land borders, and communities across the country.
The agency said it secured life imprisonment sentences for some notorious drug traffickers, the arrest of the most wanted drug barons in Lagos, and the recent passage of the NDLEA Act amendment bill as some of the milestones of the agency in 2024.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues.