ABUJA, Nigeria — Mexican drug cartels are attempting to turn Nigeria into a manufacturing hub for methamphetamine and use West Africa as a trafficking corridor to international markets, the United States and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have warned.
The warning followed the discovery and dismantling of four clandestine methamphetamine laboratories in Ogun, Oyo, Enugu and Ebonyi states this year, in operations that exposed what the NDLEA described as a deliberate effort by Mexican cartels to establish production bases in Nigeria.
The United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs for Africa and the Middle East, Michael Gonzales, said the operations highlighted Nigeria’s growing importance in the international fight against synthetic drugs.
Speaking yesterday during a visit to the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja, Gonzales warned that intensified US pressure on drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere was forcing traffickers to explore alternative routes through Africa to reach markets in Europe and beyond.
He described the development as a consequence of what he called the “squeezing a balloon” effect, whereby pressure on criminal networks in one region pushes their activities towards other locations.
Gonzales said he chose Nigeria as his first destination after assuming office four months ago because of the country’s strategic importance and the NDLEA’s record of operational successes.
“Nigeria was a clear answer,” he said, citing the country’s position as an economic powerhouse in Africa and the agency’s leadership in counter-narcotics operations.
He commended the NDLEA for dismantling four methamphetamine laboratories this year, describing the operations as evidence of effective intelligence gathering, inter-agency cooperation, coordinated investigations and prosecutions.
According to him, the operations demonstrated the importance of sustained collaboration between the US Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the Nigerian agency.
Gonzales stressed that the international nature of drug trafficking meant that successful operations in Nigeria could have consequences for drug markets and public safety in other countries, including the United States.
He said Washington had more than four decades of experience supporting counter-narcotics operations worldwide through training, equipment and other forms of assistance.
The US official also warned that the growing shift from plant-based drugs to synthetic substances presented new challenges because of their potential lethality and the difficulties associated with detecting and disrupting their production and distribution.
He called for a coordinated approach that targets criminal organisations as interconnected networks, including their financial operations.
Mexican Experts Arrested in Forest Laboratory
Responding, NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), said the agency’s investigations had uncovered attempts by Mexican drug cartels to establish large-scale methamphetamine production facilities in Nigeria.
He identified the largest of the four facilities as a clandestine laboratory discovered in a forest in Ijebu East, Ogun State, where operatives arrested three Mexican methamphetamine experts and their Nigerian collaborators.
Marwa said illicit substances valued at more than $360 million were recovered during the operation.
“These were not isolated incidents. They show a deliberate attempt to turn Nigeria into a manufacturing hub,” he said.
According to him, barely four weeks after the Ogun State operation, NDLEA operatives raided another industrial-scale laboratory at Tapa Village in neighbouring Oyo State.
The operation led to the arrest of a Mexican methamphetamine expert allegedly brought into Nigeria for large-scale drug production, alongside four Nigerian collaborators.
Marwa said the agency subsequently dismantled similar facilities in Enugu and Ebonyi states, adding that all four operations were linked to Mexican cartels.
He warned that the facilities were not intended solely to supply the Nigerian market but were allegedly being established to support the movement of industrial quantities of methamphetamine through West Africa to international destinations.
“These cartels are not setting up in our forests to supply Nigerian consumers alone. They want a West African corridor to ship industrial quantities of methamphetamine to Europe, to Asia, and to American cities,” he said.
Marwa linked the development to increased US pressure on drug trafficking networks, arguing that the cartels were seeking alternative routes to reach American markets.
He described the NDLEA’s operations as part of a broader international effort to disrupt the supply chains of criminal organisations.
“Every meth-producing laboratory that we shut down is a supply line that never reaches an American street, and every cartel operative we arrest is one fewer in the pipeline,” he said.
NDLEA Links Drug Trafficking to Terrorism
Beyond narcotics, Marwa warned that drug trafficking, illicit arms dealing and terrorist financing were increasingly interconnected, with criminal proceeds potentially sustaining armed groups and terrorist networks.
He said the agency’s operations had exposed the convergence of different forms of organised crime, stressing that the consequences extended beyond Nigeria’s borders.
“Crime has no borders, and neither does the threat. The drugs we seize, the arms we intercept and the terrorist financing we trace are not separate problems,” he said.
According to Marwa, proceeds from drug trafficking can finance weapons purchases, while armed groups use criminal networks and trafficking routes to sustain their activities.
He warned that threats affecting the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin could spread across national boundaries, just as illicit substances trafficked through West Africa could reach markets outside the continent.
The NDLEA chairman said the agency’s partnership with the United States had strengthened its capabilities in forensic and chemical analysis, professional training, criminal investigations, financial crime detection and equipment maintenance.
He attributed part of the agency’s recent operational performance to the support, saying it had contributed to the arrest of 96,157 drug offenders, including 250 drug barons, over the past five years.
During the same period, he said, the agency seized more than 15.8 million kilogrammes of assorted illicit drugs and secured the convictions of 16,691 drug traffickers, including major operators.
Marwa appealed to Washington to sustain its assistance to the NDLEA or increase it, warning that any reduction could create operational gaps that drug cartels and terrorist networks might exploit.
He urged Gonzales to convey the request to the US government, arguing that criminal organisations were expanding their operations across borders and that the agencies confronting them needed to maintain comparable levels of cooperation.
“Traffickers, arms dealers and terrorists cooperate across borders every day, and governments confronting them must do the same,” he said.
The warning highlights growing concerns over the internationalisation of synthetic drug production and the possibility that criminal networks could use Nigeria not only as a destination for illicit substances but also as a manufacturing and transit point for overseas markets.
For Nigeria, the alleged establishment of industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratories raises concerns about the country’s exposure to transnational organised crime, the domestic availability of dangerous synthetic drugs and the potential links between drug trafficking and other security threats.
For the United States and its international partners, the discoveries underscore the importance of disrupting production facilities and trafficking routes before they become entrenched in new regions.
