Nigeria Customs Hands Over Stolen Luxury Vehicles to Canada in Major Cross-Border Recovery Operation

By Adebola Isimijola, Lagos.

The Nigeria Customs Service has handed over a fleet of intercepted stolen luxury vehicles traced to Canada, in what officials described as a major breakthrough in international anti-smuggling collaboration and cargo intelligence sharing.

The handover ceremony took place on Monday, 4 May 2026, at the Tin Can Island Port, where the Deputy High Commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, Nasser Salihou, received the recovered vehicles on behalf of the Canadian government.

The Customs Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Frank Onyeka, said the recovery was achieved through sustained intelligence exchange between the Nigeria Customs Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, following alerts that several stolen high-end vehicles had been smuggled into Nigeria through international shipping routes.

An internal Customs document dated 5 May 2026 listed the recovered vehicles as including a 2019 Lexus RX350, 2019 Mercedes-Benz G550, 2023 Range Rover, 2019 Lamborghini Huracán, 2021 Rolls-Royce Dawn Convertible, 2018 Lamborghini Aventador, and a 2026 Toyota Tundra, all confirmed stolen and illegally exported before being traced to Nigeria.

Onyeka disclosed that one of the vehicles, a Toyota Tacoma, was discovered concealed inside a container already under Customs control before clearance, following intelligence alerts from Canadian authorities.

“What looked like a routine cargo movement quickly became an international criminal investigation. Once intelligence reached us, we placed the consignment under enforcement watch and secured the vehicle pending confirmation from Canadian authorities,” Onyeka said.

He added that the Service deliberately withheld final release of the consignment until Canadian officials arrived for physical identification and formal recovery procedures.

“We insisted the handover must be directly to the Canadian government to preserve the integrity of the process,” he stated.

Onyeka said the operation underscores the growing capacity of the Nigeria Customs Service in tackling transnational vehicle theft syndicates and protecting international supply chains from abuse.

He further noted that the exercise reflects strengthened cooperation between Nigeria and Canada in intelligence sharing, cargo profiling, and maritime enforcement against organised cross-border crime.