An alleged kingpin of a Nigeria-based international drug cartel has been arrested in Lagos for smuggling illicit drugs into Korea for five years.
According to Korea Times, the Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) said the 59-year-old identified as K. Jeff, was detained on February 13 following years of collaboration with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Thirty-six other members of the cartel were also apprehended.
In 2021, authorities reportedly located some cartel members based in Korea who were attempting to smuggle drugs from Ghana.
The suspects then shared key information about the cartel with Nigerian authorities and a team was dispatched to Nigeria to help find the headquarters.
Jeff was said to have been operating a drug trafficking network spanning five continents and tricking people, including Koreans, into transporting meth and other stimulant drugs.
He was convicted in Korea in 2007 for playing a major role in smuggling drugs and sentenced to 12 months in prison. He was then deported to Nigeria the following year.
The suspect “expanded his international network to Asia, Europe, Africa as well as the Americas”, where he and his cartel members cultivate, manufacture and sell illicit drugs.
They reportedly used romance scams to deceive people into smuggling illicit substances across borders.