A Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted 11 Indian sailors and their merchant vessel and ordered them to pay a combined six million dollars in fines and restitution, barely six months after anti-narcotics operatives seized 31.5 kilograms of cocaine from the ship at the Apapa seaport.
Justice Joseph Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court delivered the ruling Thursday, June 11, on plea bargain terms filed by both prosecution and defence in suit number FHC/L/56C/2026.
The case dates to January 2, 2026, when operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency discovered the cocaine inside hatch 3 of the MV Aruna Hulya at the GDNL terminal, Apapa port. The vessel had arrived from the Marshall Islands.
NDLEA subsequently arrested the ship's master, Sharma Shashi Bhushan, and 10 crew members — Bharati Manoj Kumar, Nevage Sandesh Suresh, Pandey Prashant, Nuttu Anand, Akash Babu, Nilesh Mukuno Bhalerad, Melethil Insaf Rahman, Barla Chantanya Krishna, Prabhasukhan Singu, and Jai Parkash. All 11, along with the vessel itself listed as the first defendant, were arraigned on two counts under the NDLEA Act.
Under the conviction, all 12 defendants were sentenced to pay 100,000 naira each — the statutory penalty under Section 25 of the NDLEA Act. Beyond that, the court ordered the vessel to pay restitution of 5.3 million dollars to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The three principal officers — the ship's master and two senior crew members — were each ordered to pay 100,000 dollars in restitution, while the remaining eight crew members were each directed to pay 50,000 dollars.
NDLEA Chairman Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd) described the ruling as a landmark judgment and issued a direct warning to international drug trafficking networks.
"This judgment is the third of its kind in recent times, following the convictions of foreign nationals and vessels on similar charges," Marwa said. "Let it be known that these are not coincidences — they are the direct result of deliberate, intelligence-led operations by our officers who remain vigilant at every port of entry."
Marwa said the ruling sends an unambiguous message that Nigeria is no longer a safe corridor for cocaine or any other illicit substance.
"Whether you come by air, land, or sea — whether you are a Nigerian or a foreign national — if you attempt to use our waters as a narcotics highway, you will face the full weight of Nigerian law," he said. "The war against drug trafficking is one we are winning, and we intend to keep it that way."
He commended officers of the agency's Apapa Strategic Command for detecting the cocaine buried deep within the cargo of a large commodity vessel and credited the Directorate of Prosecution and Legal Services for its diligence in seeing the case through to conviction.
The judgment is the third conviction of a foreign vessel and crew on drug trafficking charges in Nigeria in recent times, according to NDLEA.
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