The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has uncovered a transnational methamphetamine network operating across Nigeria, arresting a Mexican drug kingpin and dismantling an industrial-scale laboratory in Ebonyi State.
The NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), disclosed this while briefing the media in Lagos on Tuesday, September 15, 2026. He was represented at the briefing by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
Marwa said the breakthrough followed months of painstaking investigation into a wider criminal network behind a series of clandestine drug laboratories uncovered in parts of the country this year.
He recalled that NDLEA operatives had earlier arrested three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerian collaborators at a forest hideout in Ogun State on May 16, 2026. On June 17, another Mexican national and four Nigerian collaborators were arrested at a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory hidden in a forested part of Tapa village, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State.
Investigations by the Agency’s Special Operations Unit (SOU) into the Oyo operation led to the identification of 56-year-old Mexican methamphetamine expert Jose Villa Ochoa as a member of the network.
Babafemi said Villa Ochoa told investigators that he had been recruited into Nigeria by a Mexican drug kingpin, Arturo Carrera Loaiza. Working with international partners, NDLEA investigators obtained Loaiza’s photograph, which Villa Ochoa positively identified as that of the man who recruited and brought him into Nigeria.
Intelligence further showed that Loaiza entered Nigeria on June 10, 2026, alongside another Mexican national, Jose Ceballos Perez.
Babafemi said Loaiza was arrested on August 19, 2026, while attempting to flee the country through the Lagos airport.
“On 19th August 2026, our operatives tracked down and arrested Arturo Carrera Loaiza attempting to flee the country through the Lagos airport. During interrogation, he claimed he had been invited to Nigeria by a Nigerian contact, identified only as ‘Henry,’ under the guise of a restaurant business venture, and denied any knowledge of methamphetamine manufacturing or involvement with the Tapa village laboratory,” Babafemi said.
However, investigators recovered images of Loaiza dressed in a blue laboratory coat and standing among equipment consistent with methamphetamine production.
“However, our findings told a different story. Investigators recovered images of Arturo dressed in a blue laboratory coat, standing amid equipment consistent with methamphetamine production. Analysis of the location metadata embedded in these images led our operatives to a property undergoing construction at Isiata Ugoni Okposi, Ebonyi State,” he said.
Babafemi said NDLEA operatives moved on the Ebonyi property on August 30 and linked it to one John Samuel Ivo Okike. Interviews with persons at the site, including the site engineer and caretaker, revealed that a suspicious temporary structure had been erected over the septic tank area at the rear of the building, while strong chemical odours reportedly emanated from the premises.
A CCTV memory card recovered from the property provided a major breakthrough, with forensic analysis showing a foreign national in a blue laboratory coat who matched the image of Loaiza earlier recovered by investigators.
The footage also showed repeated appearances by Okike and captured the movement of chemicals and laboratory equipment from the property at about 9 p.m. on August 21, with Okike allegedly directing the operation.
“Acting on further intelligence from a confidential source, operatives traced the relocated materials to an isolated house in a neighbouring community, kept under the custody of one Nwanja Obasi,” Babafemi said.
A subsequent raid on the location led to the recovery of a substantial cache of methamphetamine-related chemicals, laboratory equipment and paraphernalia.
The recovered items included a dehydrator containing a white cloth sieve embedded with loose methamphetamine, three additional empty dehydrators, 442.8kg of acetone, 37.1kg of toluene, 20kg of an acetone/bromobenzene mixture, 1.7kg of ethanol, 5.1kg of chloride salt, 31.5kg of hydrochloric acid, 200kg of P2B and 1kg of tartaric acid.
Other items recovered were condensing units, a condenser head, a condenser, a fabricated reaction pot, an access pump, weighing scales, mixers, drums, gas burners, gloves and a blue laboratory coat allegedly matching the one seen in the recovered images.
Babafemi said the recovery, alongside the CCTV footage, forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts, had significantly strengthened the case against those connected to the network.
Speaking on the Agency’s determination to prevent transnational drug cartels from establishing operations in Nigeria, Marwa warned that the country would not become a safe haven for drug traffickers.
“Let me be unequivocal, Nigeria will not be allowed to become a haven for transnational drug cartels seeking to relocate their laboratories from other jurisdictions into our forests and rural communities,” Babafemi quoted Marwa as saying.
“The arrest of Arturo Carrera Loaiza and the dismantling of the Ebonyi State facility, coming so soon after the Ogun and Oyo State operations, demonstrate that this Agency’s intelligence and forensic capabilities are more than a match for these syndicates, however sophisticated they may believe themselves to be,” he said.
Marwa commended officers of the Special Operations Unit, Strike Force, Forensics and the Oyo, Ogun and Ebonyi State Commands for their diligence, professionalism and courage in the operations.
He vowed that the Agency would continue to pursue every lead until the full network, its financiers and local enablers were brought to justice.
The NDLEA also renewed its appeal to Nigerians, particularly residents of rural and forested communities, to report suspicious activities, unusual chemical odours or unfamiliar structures to the Agency.
