10 Filipino Sailors Fined $6M for Cocaine Shipment Seized in Apapa, Lagos

By Frank Zera, Lagos

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March 18, 2026, 12:32 p.m.

10 Filipino Sailors Fined $6M for Cocaine Shipment Seized in Apapa, Lagos

The Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted ten Pilipinos for the smuggling of twenty kilograms of cocaine from Brazil in a ship that was impounded at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos. The Filipino sailors were convicted alongside their MV Nord Bosporus merchant vessel and fined a total of Six Million US Dollars, as well as another One Million, One Hundred Thousand Naira penalty. The convicts are EUGENE QUINOS CORPUZ, MARK JOSEPH JARDINIANO, ALEXIS NAVIDAD EVARROLA, FRANCIS GERARD NIONES CARPIO, FRANZ JUDE MAYRAN, MAHINAY JUNNIEL LAGURA, MARIO GANIBAN MALVAR, HORMACHUELOS LORDITO GUIVENCAN, JOSHUA EMMANUEL HUFANDA and EDWIN BALTAZAR REYES. The judgement comes four months after the Filipino sailors were arrested and their ship impounded by NDLEA operatives at the Apapa seaport in Lagos on November 16, 2025. Justice AYOKUNLE FAJI delivered the judgment after the defendants pleaded guilty to a four-count charge brought against them, following a plea bargain deal reached with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA. Following the successful prosecution of the case by NDLEA lawyers, led by the Director of Prosecution and Legal Services, THERESA ASUQUO, Justice FAJI ordered the convicts to make a restitution in the sum of Five Million, Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand US Dollars to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in addition to other fines. Reacting to the court ruling, the NDLEA Chairman, retired Brigadier General MUHAMED BUBA MARWA, said the judgment represents an unambiguous signal that Nigeria’s territorial waters was no longer a playground for drug cartels. In a statement by the NDLEA’s Head of Media and Advocacy, FEMI BABAFEMI, retired General MARWA described the conviction of the vessel and its crew as a resounding victory for the rule of law and a powerful testament to the renewed vigour of the agency to rid Nigeria of illicit drugs. The NDLEA Chairman commended officers and men of the Apapa Strategic Command of the Agency for their vigilance in identifying the cocaine consignment, which he said was buried deep within the cargo of a massive commodity vessel.

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