A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has sentenced a serial drug trafficker, Solomon Adegbite, to 15 years’ imprisonment without an option of a fine for trafficking 1.30 kilogrammes of Tramadol 225 mg, a prohibited narcotic substance.

According to the first count of the charge, Adegbite was arrested on July 22, 2025, during the outward clearance of passengers on a Royal Air Maroc flight bound for Italy via Casablanca, Morocco, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

The NDLEA alleged that he knowingly possessed 1.30kg of Tramadol 225mg, which he concealed inside a thick winter jacket he was wearing in an attempt to evade airport security screening.

Adegbite has been arrested three time for drug-related offences, including in 2024.

The court, presided over by Justice Musa Kakaki, delivered the sentence on Wednesday after convicting Adegbite on a 15-count charge filed against him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

Adegbite, a 41-year-old Nigerian resident in Italy, was convicted after he pleaded guilty to the charges.

The NDLEA, through its prosecutor, Juliana Imaobong Iroabuchi, had earlier arraigned the defendant before the court in February 2026, following his arrest over the illicit drug consignment.

He was subsequently remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service pending the review of facts.

Although the matter suffered delays on two occasions after the prosecution informed the court that the exhibits intended to be tendered were not ready, the case eventually proceeded on March 16, 2026.

At the resumed hearing, an NDLEA operative, Okey Emmanuel, reviewed the facts of the case and tendered relevant exhibits before the court.

Following the review, the prosecutor urged the court to convict the defendant based on his guilty plea and the evidence presented.

Justice Kakaki thereafter convicted Adegbite, with no objection raised by his counsel, Augustine Nwagu, and adjourned the matter to March 18, 2026, for sentencing.

At the sentencing hearing, defence counsel Augustine Nwagu pleaded for leniency on behalf of the convict, describing him as a young man with several dependants who rely on him for support.

He told the court that Adegbite was remorseful and had learned from his actions, urging the judge to temper justice with mercy and grant him an option of fine.

However, the NDLEA prosecutor strongly opposed the plea.

Iroabuchi argued that granting an option of fine would send the wrong message to society, especially given the devastating impact of hard drugs on victims and communities.

She further told the court that Adegbite was an unrepentant repeat offender, noting that this was allegedly the third time he had been arrested for drug-related offences.

The prosecutor also urged the court to consider the commercial quantity of the seized narcotic.

After listening to both parties, Justice Kakaki sentenced Adegbite to prison terms across 13 of the 15 counts, with the sentences to run as pronounced by the court.

Specifically, the judge sentenced Adegbite to 15 years’ imprisonment on count 1, 15 years’ imprisonment on count 2, 15 years’ imprisonment on count 3, 15 years’ imprisonment on count 4, 15 years’ imprisonment on count 5, 15 years’ imprisonment on count 6, 10 years’ imprisonment on count 7, 4 years’ imprisonment on count 8, 4 years’ imprisonment on count 9, 4 years’ imprisonment on count 10, 4 years’ imprisonment on count 11, 4 years’ imprisonment on count 12, and 10 years’ imprisonment on count 15.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered the forfeiture of several items to the Federal Government of Nigeria, including Adegbite’s Italian residence permit, his Nigerian international passport, a Samsung Galaxy A22 mobile phone, his bank accounts linked to Aderevico Pharmacy, and other assets associated with the pharmacy business.

The anti-narcotics agency further alleged that the defendant attempted to manipulate his travel documents during his third arrest by exchanging his valid Italian residence permit with an expired one.

The offence is punishable under Sections 11(d) and 20(a)(c) of the NDLEA Act, Cap N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

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A 38-year-old Nigerian national has been arrested in Faridabad, Haryana, India for allegedly cheating multiple women of millions of crore by posing as a wealthy businessman on matrimonial websites and social media.

The accused, identified as Samuel Ogun, alias Stepney Derrick, allegedly created fake profiles to target women seeking marriage.

DCP (cybercrime) Shavya Goyal said he used attractive photographs and fabricated personal details to build trust, presenting himself as an international businessman based abroad.

After initiating contact, he would gradually draw victims into emotional relationships and promise marriage.

He would eventually send fake flight tickets and parcel receipts, telling victims that he was travelling to India to meet and marry them.

Police said he would later claim that his luggage or parcels had been detained by the customs department and required urgent payment for clearance.

Victims, convinced by the narrative, transferred large sums into multiple bank accounts. Losses in such cases ran into lakhs and crores.

In addition to the matrimonial scam, the accused is also suspected of cheating people by offering fake loan services with promises of quick approvals at low interest rates.

Ogun was arrested during investigations into two cases registered against the accused at Noida cybercrime police station.

In one case, a woman was cheated of nearly Rs 56 lakh, while another victim lost around Rs 1.3 crore.

Cases linked to the accused have also surfaced in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Police suspect that several similar frauds may have been carried out across different states.

On Thursday, March 19, 2026, a police team recovered five mobile phones, a laptop, a tablet, a Wi-Fi router, a dongle, several SIM cards, foreign currency, and multiple passports bearing different identities, along with forged documents from his Faridabad house.

Investigators said the accused used multiple fake identities and passports of different nationalities to evade detection.

When one identity became unusable, he allegedly travelled abroad to obtain another before returning to India.

Digital evidence, police said, indicated he maintained simultaneous contact with 15 to 16 women under different aliases.

Devices seized during the arrest have been sent for forensic examination for further leads.

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A Nigerian national, James Junior Aliyu, has been sentenced to 90 months in prison in the United States for his role in a large-scale wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Aliyu, who was arrested and extradited from South Africa to the United States, is the last of three defendants to plead guilty to his role in a business email compromise (BEC) scheme.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the sentence in a statement on Saturday, March 21, 2026.

In addition to his jail term, the court ordered him to forfeit $1.2 million and pay $2.4 million in restitution to victims affected by the fraud.

ICE further disclosed that Aliyu will be deported from the United State upon completion of his prison sentence.

“James Junior Aliyu, a Nigerian national, will serve a 90-month sentence for his role in a wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy after planning to hack business email servers,” the statement read.

“Aliyu was extradited from South Africa to face justice.

“He was slapped with a $1.2M forfeiture order and a $2.4M restitution order and will be removed from the United States when he completes his sentence.

“ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents in Maryland and South Africa offices were proud to be part of the international team that investigated this case.”

It was reported that Aliyu, who was residing in South Africa at the time of his criminal conduct, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

Eight other defendants previously pleaded guilty in the District of Maryland in separate cases related to the same conspiracy.

On June 24, 2019, a federal grand jury returned an indictment, charging Aliyu, Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo, 30, and Henry Onyedikachi Echefu, 31, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

All three are Nigerian citizens who resided in South Africa at the time of the crimes.

Federal authorities unsealed the indictment on July 6, 2022, upon the defendants’ arrests outside of the U.S.

All three were extradited to the United States from outside the country to face their federal charges.

According to his plea agreement, from February 2017 until at least July 2017, Aliyu conspired with others to perpetrate a BEC scheme.

Specifically, Aliyu and his co-conspirators, including co-conspirators residing in Maryland, gained unauthorized access to email accounts associated with individuals and businesses that they targeted.

The co-conspirators sent false wiring instructions to the victims’ email accounts from “spoofed” emails — accounts associated with forged sender addresses — to deceive the victims into sending money to bank accounts controlled by the scheme’s perpetrators, which are called “drop accounts.”

Additionally, during the same timeframe, Aliyu and his co-conspirators plotted to commit money laundering.

They conspired to disburse the fraudulently obtained funds into the drop accounts and to other accounts by initiating account transfers, withdrawing cash, obtaining cashier’s checks, and writing checks to other individuals and entities to hide the true ownership and source of the assets.

As detailed in the plea agreement, the intended loss for transactions Aliyu was directly involved in was at least $4,162,211.65.

The actual loss resulting from these transactions was at least $1,570,475.

Aliyu directly controlled at least $1,194,565 of the funds they obtained from victims.

According to the plea agreement, Aliyu is required to pay a money judgment of at least $1,194,565, and restitution in the full amount of the victims’ losses, which the parties agree is at least $2,389,130.

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