10 Filipinos convicted, fined $6million for 20kg cocaine trafficking

Court

Barely four months after their arrest by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for importing 20 kilograms of cocaine from Santos, Brazil, into Nigeria through the Apapa seaport in Lagos, 10 Filipino sailors and their merchant vessel, MV Nord Bosporus have been convicted and fined a total of $6 million, plus an additional penalty of N1.1 million, by a Federal High Court in Lagos.

Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy at NDLEA Headquarters Abuja, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to Babafemi, the merchant vessel and its crew members were arrested following the seizure of 20 kilograms of cocaine on board the ship by NDLEA officers at the Apapa seaport in Lagos on 16th November 2025.

He said a four-count criminal charge was subsequently filed against them in suit number FHC/L/1232C/25 at the Federal High Court 2 in Lagos by a team of NDLEA prosecutors led by the Agency’s Director of Prosecution and Legal Services, Theresa Asuquo.

The statement reads, “The vessel and its Filipino sailors, namely: 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, however, decided to plead guilty and enter a plea bargain agreement. Nation