A Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted eleven Indian sailors and a merchant vessel of smuggling 31.5 kilograms of cocaine into Nigeria and imposed combined financial penalties exceeding $6 million in a judgment that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency described as one of the most significant drug trafficking convictions involving foreign nationals and a foreign vessel in the country’s legal history.
Justice Joseph Chukwujekwu Aneke delivered the ruling after approving a plea bargain agreement reached between the prosecution and defence teams, convicting all defendants on charges bordering on unlawful importation of narcotic drugs under the NDLEA Act. The convicted sailors included ship’s master Sharma Shashi Bhushan and ten crew members whose identities were confirmed in court records.
NDLEA operatives had arrested the vessel, MV Aruna Hulya, in January after discovering the cocaine concealed within Hatch 3 of the ship at the GDNL terminal in Apapa Port. Investigators established that the consignment had been transported from the Marshall Islands before being intercepted at Nigeria’s busiest seaport.
The court ordered each convicted sailor to pay a statutory fine of N100,000 and directed the vessel itself to pay restitution of $5.3 million to the federal government. Three senior officers received individual restitution orders of $100,000 each, while the remaining crew members were directed to pay $50,000 each.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Buba Marwa said the verdict delivered a clear warning to international drug syndicates that Nigeria would no longer serve as a permissive transit corridor for narcotics. He said the conviction was the third in a recent series of major cases involving foreign nationals and vessels engaged in trafficking, demonstrating the growing effectiveness of intelligence-led maritime enforcement, and that the agency’s surveillance now covered all entry points into the country regardless of the nationality of those attempting to exploit them.
