Arrival of Octogenarian Drug Lords: Old Faces, New Crisis

 

80-year-old Ayuba Ashiru, a former convict, was arrested on July 25, 2025, in Dogarawa, Sabon Gari LGA, Kaduna State. NDLEA agents, acting on credible intelligence, seized 2.3 kg of skunk cannabis, neatly packaged in retail-sized nylon sachets. Ashiru openly admitted that he has pivoted around the illicit trade for 46 years, serving a previous 10-year prison term from 2014 to 2024 for similar offenses. 

Currently, another 80-year-old Mrs. Grace Ekpeme was arrested early Saturday, July 26, at her residence on Edet-Nsa Street, Base Site, Calabar South, Cross River State. She was found in possession of over 3kg of cannabis, commonly known as skunk.

These arrests formed part of a broader blitz that included the interception of opioids valued at over ₦3.2 billion at Apapa Seaport in Lagos and Port Harcourt Port in Rivers State. There, security agencies uncovered millions of pills of tapentadol, carisoprodol, and codeine syrup disguised as innocuous shipments. 

These cases are not anomalies, they expose a disturbing pattern:

Age is no barrier. Criminal networks now retain and rely on significantly older figures, whose age may offer a shield from suspicion, less likely to be profiled in typical drug enforcement sweeps.

Criminal continuity across generations. In one case, an elderly grandmother and her daughter seamlessly took over operations started by her deceased son and this underscores how drug crime embeds within families and communities.

Retail-level packaging. The seized skunk and pills were found in small sachets, prepared for street-level sales. This hints at a distribution system that integrates seamlessly with informal hawker networks, especially sachet-based vendors who can sell to both minors and adults under inconspicuous cover.

Alarming Consequences of the Status Quo

1. Deepening normalisation of drug trade. When grandparents and mothers openly run illicit operations, it suggests supply chains are fully normalized even revered.

2. Expanded access to drugs. Sack‐sized packaging and informal hawker networks enable access at street‑corner level—potentially reaching minors in transit hubs, school areas, and crowded markets. If you are a regular face around Seven Up and Eleganza axis, it is highly disturbing to see teenagers hovering around these hawkers. 

3. Challenge to law enforcement profiling. The stereotype of drug traffickers as young, male, street-based is undermined, a scantily dressed hawker with the wares delicately positioned on their head should not be ignored.

4. Public health and community trust. Opioids like tramadol and methamphetamine are harmful, addictive substances. When widely distributed through retail channels, they fuel addiction, psychosis, crime, and irreversible health outcomes.

5. Structural resilience of trafficking networks. Generations inherit the business: once a member dies or is jailed, relatives pick up, ensuring the network persists. Because it is  major source of income they know from onset.

Lessons and Imperatives

Enforcement must expand its lens. Agencies must consider elder family members, matriarchs, and patriarchs as potential key nodes in trafficking organizations, not fringe anomalies.

Disrupt retail chain packaging. Breaking the sachet-level distribution whether via hawkers or disguised product bundles is critical to cutting access at grassroots levels.

Community outreach must evolve. Authorities should focus public awareness on how drug syndicates embed within households and feed into street-level commerce especially via alcohol-hawking or informal sachet sales.

Leverage intelligence on hidden supply chains. Thanks to credible intelligence, NDLEA succeeded in these raids. But sustained disruption demands deeper infiltration into generational networks and family-held operations—not just markets or ports.

A Nation’s Wake-Up Call

These arrests reveal a grim reality: age does not deter drug crime, and in fact, may now offer camouflage. From grandma-run homes to ex-convict operatives, the illicit drug trade in Nigeria is aging and it is expanding. It entwines retail level distribution, family heritage, and subtle infiltration of communities.

Without urgent adaptation targeting not just young street dealers but seasoned elder operators, the drug crisis will persist. Nigeria must act swiftly to dismantle multi-generational networks masquerading as normalcy, before more lives especially of the vulnerable are lost.