NDLEA intercepts cocaine shipment from Brazil, detains ship, 20 Filipino crew members

Barely six months after 10 Thai sailors and their ship were convicted and fined $4.3million for bringing 32.9kg cocaine into Nigeria, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have again intercepted another commodity laden vessel- MV Nord Bosporus marked 9760110 from the port of Santos in Brazil at the Apapa seaport in Lagos with no less than 20 kilograms of the Class A drug buried under its cargo.

The illicit drug consignment was discovered on board the vessel on Sunday 16th November 2025 by NDLEA officers who thereafter took the Master of the ship, Captain Quino Eugene Corpus and 19 other crew members who are all Filipinos into custody for investigation.

Following the seizure and arrest of the crew members, the Agency filed an application for an order of court for the detention of the vessel and the 20 Filipinos on board for further investigation. The motion ex-parte in suit number FHC/L/MISC/1306/25 was argued before Justice Musa Kakaki of the Federal High Court, Lagos, who on Thursday 20th November 2025 granted the application for an initial 14 days detention of the vessel, Capt. Corpus and 19 other Filipino crew members.

Preliminary investigation revealed that this was the first time the vessel was coming to Nigeria and Africa as it’s been largely transporting coal between Colombia and Brazil while Captain Corpus has been barely three months with the ship.