Notorious drug dealer and socialite, Toyin Igbira, dies at 56

Textile merchant, Monsurat Asabi, famously referred to in the Nigerian social circuit as Toyin Igbira, has died of ovarian cancer

She was 56 years of age.

The mother of three supposedly passed on in the early hours of Saturday at a private medical clinic in Surulere, Lagos.

A toast of Fuji performers, Igbira was a school dropout who later turned into a drug dealer.

The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) captured her in 1999 at 36 years old following quite an extensive undercover anti-narcotic operations.

She was summoned under the steady gaze of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on a two-include charge of unlawfully managing in 5 kg of heroin and condemned to two years in jail.

Igbira was re-captured at the Lagos airplane terminal in 2002 with 72 wraps of a substance suspected to be heroin.

Authority of the NDLEA said she had evaded arrest for previous drug trafficking offenses.

"Igbira was going to load onto a plane to the United States when she was captured," an NDLEA representative said.

He said the woman, who had been on the drug agency’s wanted list since 1997, excreted 72 wraps of suspected heroin weighing 675g.

"This specific capture prompted led to chains of arrests that unravel the most notorious drug cartel,” he added.

Many drug couriers have named her as the source of their wares.