Beyond Revenue: How Nigeria Customs is fighting smuggling at the frontline of national security

When most Nigerians think about the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), they think about revenue collection at the nation’s seaports, airports and land borders.

Yet behind the billions of naira generated annually lies another mandate that has become increasingly critical as insecurity deepens across the country: preventing the flow of illegal arms, narcotics, petroleum products, counterfeit medicines and illicit financial flows that sustain organised crime and undermine national security.

Over the past three years, the Service has shifted from traditional border enforcement to intelligence-led operations, combining technology, inter-agency collaboration and data analytics to target sophisticated smuggling networks. The objective is no longer simply to intercept contraband, but to dismantle the criminal supply chains that fuel banditry, terrorism, kidnapping and economic sabotage.

For Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, comptroller-general of Customs, the impact of anti-smuggling operations cannot be measured only by the value of seized goods.

“What is well recorded is the scale of specific interceptions,” he said, pointing to 40 shipments of unauthorised pharmaceuticals comprising 175,676 pieces and 6,271 cartons of counterfeit drugs worth N3.04 billion, thousands of pump-action rifles and rounds of ammunition intercepted over the years, more than 14,000 parcels of cannabis sativa seized in a single Zone A operation, almost 200,000 litres of petroleum products intercepted in Adamawa under Operation Whirlwind, and undeclared foreign currency worth hundreds of millions of naira seized at airports.

Asked how many lives those operations may have saved, Adeniyi declined to speculate.

“I can only speak in principle rather than a precise count: every consignment of illegal arms we intercept is a shooting, a kidnapping or an act of banditry that did not happen, and every batch of counterfeit or unauthorized pharmaceuticals we seize is a public-health harm averted. I would rather be honest that we do not have a modelled casualty-avoidance figure than offer you an invented one.”

His response reflects a broader shift within Customs towards evidence-based enforcement, where measurable intelligence increasingly takes precedence over assumptions.

Fighting crime before it happens

Nigeria’s long and porous borders have historically provided opportunities for smugglers to move weapons, drugs and other prohibited items across the country with relative ease.

Rather than relying solely on physical checkpoints, Customs says it is now using intelligence to identify high-risk routes and consignments before they reach Nigerian markets.

One of the flagship examples is Operation Whirlwind, launched with the Office of the National Security Adviser to curb petroleum smuggling.

According to Adeniyi, the operation seized more than 150,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) within seven days across Adamawa, Sokoto and Cross River states.

The Service also cites the formal transfer in February 2025 of a cache of weapons seized at Tin Can Island Port to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, as well as the interception of more than $1.1 million and SR135,900 hidden inside packages of dates at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport.

“Each of these operations reflects the same underlying shift: from static, reactive enforcement towards intelligence-driven, inter-agency action targeted at the specific routes and methods smugglers are actually using,” Adeniyi said.

Technology replaces guesswork

Perhaps the biggest transformation within Customs has been its growing reliance on technology.

The Service has established a Geospatial Intelligence Unit that deploys satellite imagery, remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping to monitor border crossings across Nigeria.

It has also procured more than 500 operational vehicles to strengthen border patrol while integrating geospatial tracking into enforcement operations.

At the ports, the introduction of non-intrusive scanners and the Centralised Image Analysis System has significantly reduced dependence on manual cargo examinations.

According to Adeniyi, scanners at Apapa, Tin Can Island and Onne can process about 325 scans every hour, with images automatically matched against cargo declarations and historical records to identify suspicious consignments.

The Customs management platform, B’Odogwu, has further strengthened this process through risk management modules that allow officers to focus on cargoes flagged by data analytics instead of relying on random inspections.

“The clearest institutional milestone here is the commissioning of the Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Analytics Centre of Excellence,” he said.

“Combined with B’Odogwu’s risk-management module and our Non-Intrusive Inspection System… this gives us a genuinely predictive rather than purely reactive enforcement posture.”

No agency can secure Nigeria alone

argues that modern border security can only succeed through collaboration.

The Nigeria Customs Service now coordinates the Joint Border Patrol Team under the Office of the National Security Adviser, bringing together the military, Police, Immigration, Department of State Services and intelligence agencies.

The Service also works with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on currency-smuggling investigations and with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency on narcotics interdiction.

Its participation in the World Customs Organisation’s Colibri Project has expanded intelligence sharing with international partners to combat illicit trafficking through general aviation.

“Our primary vehicle for this is the Joint Border Patrol Team,” Adeniyi said. “This structure exists precisely because illicit small arms… fuel Boko Haram, armed banditry, kidnapping and farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria.”

Winning public trust

Beyond enforcement, Customs has increasingly invested in public sensitisation.

Campaigns on currency declaration at airports and joint awareness programmes with anti-corruption agencies are intended to improve compliance before offences occur.

Adeniyi believes public understanding is essential because smuggling affects far more than government revenue.

“Explicitly linking everyday smuggling, of fuel, arms or currency, to how it finances insecurity is a message we continue to reinforce,” he said.

The next phase

Despite the gains, the Customs boss admits challenges remain. He acknowledges that there is no formal alternative livelihood programme for border communities that depend on smuggling, describing it as an area requiring deliberate investment.

Looking ahead, he said the Service’s strategy rests on three pillars: consolidation, collaboration and innovation.

The Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023, intelligence-sharing agreements with several countries, expansion of geospatial surveillance, wider deployment of B’Odogwu and the replication of Operation Whirlwind across other smuggling corridors are expected to define the next phase of enforcement.

“Our intention over the next three years is to extend that same model, purpose-built teams, shared intelligence, and zero tolerance for internal compromise, to other high-value smuggling corridors beyond petroleum products.”

As criminal networks become increasingly sophisticated, Nigeria’s frontline against transnational crime is evolving from physical border policing into a technology-driven intelligence enterprise. For Customs, success will increasingly depend not on the volume of seizures alone, but on its ability to stop illicit networks before they reach Nigeria’s communities.