This photo shows K Jeff, a drug ring leader in Nigeria, being arrested, provided by the National Intelligence Service, Feb. 20. Yonhap

The ringleader of a Nigerian drug crime organization has been nabbed through collaboration between the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and local authorities for deceiving Koreans into smuggling drugs through romance scams and other schemes, the agency said Thursday.

K Jeff, 59, the leader of an emerging drug ring based in Nigeria, was arrested last Thursday in a joint operation between the agency's Transnational Crime Information Center and Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, according to the NIS.

His organization operated bases in Southeast Asian nations, Africa, Korea, America and Europe to distribute drugs or carry out romance or investment scams to deceive people online into serving as drug couriers.

Victims, deceived by romance scams or fake investment opportunities, traveled to foreign countries to deliver backpacks, confectionary or grocery items packed with drugs to other countries at the false request of relaying gifts on behalf of the organization's members.

Among the victims was a Korean woman in her 50s, who was caught last year while delivering shaving wax containing cocaine from Brazil to Cambodia via Korea, the NIS said.

Including her, some 10 victims, including foreigners, had been confirmed, it said.

K Jeff was deported from Korea in 2008 while serving a one-year prison term for spearheading a drug circulation scheme. Since then, he had been sourcing drugs in Korea and Central America and Southeast Asia, smuggling them into Korea and beyond from Nigeria.

Korean investigative authorities initially busted a Nigerian drug ring operating in Korea in 2021 for attempting to smuggle drugs from Ghana, and ultimately traced it to the drug lord.

The NIS has confiscated 45.6 kilograms of drugs from this organization, including 28.4 kg of methamphetamine, and arrested 38 members of the group, the agency said, warning people about individuals who make online requests to deliver items overseas. (Yonhap)