A suspected Mexican drug kingpin, Arturo Carrera Loaiza, was arrested at Lagos International Airport last month while attempting to leave Nigeria, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has disclosed.
The arrest, according to the NDLEA, led investigators to a suspected industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory in Ebonyi State, marking the third laboratory allegedly linked to Mexican nationals uncovered in Nigeria within four months.
Loaiza, 40, was detained at the airport with digital images on his device showing him wearing what investigators believed was a laboratory coat alongside equipment associated with methamphetamine production.
The NDLEA said location data attached to the images helped investigators trace a property in Ebonyi State, where they discovered chemicals and equipment suspected to have been used for producing the synthetic drug.
Loaiza has denied any involvement in methamphetamine production. According to the NDLEA, he told investigators that he had travelled to Nigeria after being invited by a local contact to participate in a restaurant business venture.
At the suspected laboratory, investigators also recovered a CCTV memory card containing footage from the property. The recording allegedly showed a person resembling Loaiza wearing a blue laboratory coat.
A Nigerian man was also identified in the footage, allegedly directing others as they moved chemicals and equipment from the premises.
NDLEA Chairman, Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa, said further intelligence gathered during the investigation led officers to an isolated house in a neighbouring community.
According to him, the search of the location resulted in the recovery of chemicals and various pieces of equipment, including dehydrators, condensers, a reaction pot, weighing scales, mixers, drums, gas burners and a sieve containing traces of methamphetamine.
The agency has not disclosed the quantity of methamphetamine the suspected laboratory could have produced.
Investigators also alleged that Loaiza recruited and brought another Mexican national to work at a separate suspected methamphetamine laboratory concealed in a forest in Oyo State.
That facility was raided in June, resulting in the arrest of four Nigerians, according to the NDLEA.
The agency said the Oyo operation came about a month after its officers arrested three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerians at another facility described as an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory hidden inside a forest.
Marwa said the series of discoveries indicated attempts by international criminal organisations to establish drug-production facilities in Nigeria’s forests and rural areas.
“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”, he said.
The NDLEA said investigations into the suspected network remain ongoing, including efforts to identify individuals believed to have financed or facilitated the establishment and operation of the laboratories.
Unlike plant-based drugs such as cocaine and heroin, synthetic substances such as methamphetamine do not require specific agricultural conditions. They can be manufactured in different locations provided the necessary chemicals, equipment and expertise are available.
This makes synthetic drugs particularly attractive to organised criminal networks seeking to establish production facilities that can potentially be expanded quickly.
The investigation also highlights the appeal of secluded forested and rural areas in West Africa to suspected drug-production networks, with such locations offering isolation that can make clandestine operations more difficult to detect.
