Nigerian authorities have arrested an online celebrity and influencer allegedly behind a planned shipment of more than 180 kilogrammes of cocaine from Lagos in a major international drug bust.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said Tuesday that Afolabi Kazeem Michael was arrested at Lagos airport while trying to "flee" to Paris after authorities seized 184.5 kilogrammes of cocaine his gang was suspected of attempting to ship via a courier company.
West Africa in recent years has emerged as a transit point for drugs making their way from South America to Europe - mostly cocaine.
Worth about 39 billion naira (about $28.8 million) in street value, according to the drugs agency, the operation was the "largest cocaine seizure in a courier company in Nigeria", NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said in a statement.
‘Arrowhead’ of cartel
Michael is suspected to be the Nigerian "arrowhead" of a cartel that was using Nigeria as a transit hub to move cocaine from South America to the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia, authorities said.
Having amassed more than half a million followers on Instagram, Michael is also a self-styled celebrity jeweller and social media influencer.
A staff member of the courier company, Lawal Mujab Kehinde, and several others were also arrested on suspicion of working with the cartel.
Ports on the coasts of west Africa have become popular stopover points for transcontinental cocaine shipments bound for Europe, and some contraband slips into domestic drug markets.
NDLEA boss Mohammed Buba Marwa, a former army general, said drug gangs have in recent years turned to trafficking their drugs through courier companies, hoping to exploit what they perceive as a "softer, less monitored channel for moving narcotics across international borders".
Meth lab bust
Michael's arrest came after authorities busted the country's largest-ever industrial-scale meth lab in a remote forest in the southwest and arrested nine suspects, including three Mexican nationals, in May.
A Mexican was also arrested after another meth lab was uncovered in a forest in southwestern Oyo state the following month.
Officials worry Mexican cartels are establishing links in Nigeria to produce and ship meth out of the country.
