A Nigerian social media influencer suspected of links to a global drug trafficking network has been arrested after the authorities seized cocaine worth nearly $28m (£21m) destined for the UK.

Afolabi Kazeem Micheal was detained at an airport in Lagos last week as he prepared to board a flight to Paris, Nigeria’s drug enforcement agency said.

The 49-year-old, known as “KC Luxury” to his 700,000 Instagram followers, presented himself online as a businessman dealing in gold and luxury goods.

Officials allege he was the Nigerian “arrowhead” of a cartel trafficking cocaine from South America through Nigeria to Europe and Asia. Micheal has not commented on the allegations or been charged in court.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said 184.5kg of cocaine was found concealed in brown boxes at a courier facility in Lagos on Monday 3 August.

The agency said it was being exported by an international trafficking network that for years had used Nigeria as a transit hub to move drugs to the UK, other parts of Europe and to Asia.

Micheal was arrested 10 days later at Lagos’s Murtala Mohammed International Airport as he attempted to leave the country on a business-class flight to the French capital.

“Upon credible intelligence that he intended to flee the country… our operatives moved decisively and apprehended him at the boarding gate… just as he attempted to escape the reach of the law,” the head of the NDLEA, General Buba Marwa, said.

Micheal was carrying more than $12,840 in cash in three currencies – euros, pounds and naira – as well as expensive jewellery “consistent with the proceeds of his illicit trade” when he was arrested, the agency said.

A second detained suspect, Lawal Mujab Kehinde, is alleged to have been a staff member of a logistics company through which the cocaine was transported.

The NDLEA alleged the 33-year-old packaged cocaine for export and was paid in cash. Kehinde has not commented on the allegations or been charged in court.

The agency said other suspected members of the network in the UK have also been arrested by counterpart law enforcement agencies overseas.

The BBC is chasing the UK authorities for comment.

Marwa said the arrests demonstrated what could be achieved when international agencies worked together and vowed to pursue other members of the network.

“We will track you to the departure gates if we must,” he said at a news conference in Lagos.

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