A suspected kingpin of a Nigeria-based international drug cartel has been arrested in Lagos for smuggling illicit drugs into Korea over a span of five years.
According to Korea Times, the 59-year-old, identified as K. Jeff, was detained on February 13 after years of cooperation between the Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) and Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Along with Jeff, 36 other members of the cartel were also apprehended. In 2021, authorities in Korea reportedly identified some cartel members attempting to smuggle drugs from Ghana. These individuals provided crucial information about the cartel’s operations, which led Nigerian authorities to launch an investigation and eventually locate the cartel’s headquarters in Nigeria.
Jeff was said to have led a vast drug trafficking network spanning five continents, deceiving individuals—many of them Koreans—into transporting methamphetamine and other stimulant drugs. In 2007, he was convicted in Korea for his role in smuggling drugs and served a 12-month prison sentence before being deported to Nigeria the following year.
Since his return to Nigeria, Jeff is believed to have expanded his international network, reaching into Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
His cartel was involved in the cultivation, manufacturing, and distribution of illicit drugs, often using romance scams to recruit individuals to smuggle substances across borders.
