NDLEA uncovers Mexican cartel links to methamphetamine labs in Ogun, Oyo forests

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has uncovered attempts by international drug cartels to establish large-scale methamphetamine production facilities in forested areas of Ogun and Oyo states.

The agency said the networks involved have links to Mexican criminal organisations seeking to establish a foothold in Nigeria’s illicit drug market.

NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, monitored by DAILY POST.

Babafemi said the agency had recently detected clandestine efforts to establish methamphetamine laboratories in forests, adding that operatives were moving beyond conventional drug seizures to dismantle trafficking networks at their operational bases.

“We’ve seen recently the collaboration between the Nigerian-Mexican cartels trying to have methamphetamine laboratories in the forests of Ogun and Oyo states,” he stated.

He also disclosed that a related operation in Ebonyi State had led to arrests, with the agency expected to release further details after completing the necessary procedures.

According to Babafemi, the developments demonstrate the increasingly international nature of the illicit drug trade and the efforts by foreign criminal networks to establish production and distribution structures in Nigeria.

He said the NDLEA was strengthening cooperation with law enforcement agencies within Nigeria and abroad, stressing that the scale of transnational drug trafficking required coordinated action.

The agency has also intensified efforts to dismantle trafficking routes, particularly as tighter controls at airports, seaports and major highways have pushed traffickers towards alternative corridors.

Babafemi added that some criminal networks were now moving narcotics through neighbouring countries before attempting to bring them into Nigeria.

He cited the recent dismantling of a cartel operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor, describing the route as a major channel that had contributed to the distribution of opioids and other illicit substances in Nigeria.

Babafemi said the agency’s strategy now extends beyond arrests and seizures to intelligence gathering, dismantling criminal structures and targeting the financial networks supporting the drug trade.

“We’re dismantling all their structures and disabling their capacity and capability, whether in terms of their financial backbone or their instrumentalities,” he said.

He added that the agency was developing greater capacity to investigate drug trafficking conducted through digital platforms, including social media, cryptocurrency networks and the dark web.

According to him, intelligence obtained through social media has already contributed to several arrests, while NDLEA officers are receiving specialised training in financial investigations, asset tracing and the recovery of proceeds linked to narcotics trafficking.

The agency has also warned social media influencers against promoting or glamorising illicit drug use.

Babafemi said the NDLEA was working with the Actors Guild of Nigeria and other stakeholders in the entertainment industry to discourage the promotion of substance abuse.

Babafemi further disclosed that the NDLEA Marine Command had intercepted consignments of cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis on the high seas off Akwa Ibom State.

He said the shipment was reportedly destined for Cameroon.

The spokesman said the Marine Command had personnel trained in countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil, with the unit responsible for monitoring Nigeria’s waterways and supporting anti-narcotics operations at sea and around ports.

He said the agency was also expanding its focus beyond traditional narcotics such as cannabis, cocaine and tramadol to synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine and Captagon.

Babafemi explained that cocaine was not produced domestically but originated largely from South America and moved through African trafficking routes towards European and other international markets.

He said the enormous financial value of narcotics continued to make the trade attractive to organised criminal networks, noting that a kilogramme of methamphetamine or cocaine could command extremely high prices in some international markets.

He added that the methamphetamine laboratory uncovered in an Ogun forest had the potential to produce drugs estimated to be worth nearly half a trillion naira.

In another initiative, the NDLEA is implementing an Alternative Development Programme designed to encourage cannabis farmers to abandon illicit cultivation and adopt legitimate sources of income.

Babafemi said the pilot programme was launched in three communities in Ondo State — Ifon, Ilu-Abo and Eleyewo — where cannabis growers were encouraged to explore activities such as poultry farming and fishing.

He said the programme was intended to provide sustainable economic alternatives for communities heavily dependent on cannabis cultivation while reducing their exposure to criminal activity and law enforcement operations.

According to him, the agency has begun a second phase of the programme, with early results described as encouraging.

Babafemi also pointed to measures being taken to improve the safety and operational capacity of NDLEA personnel.

He said officers had received specialised training, life and injury insurance, improved protective equipment and operational vehicles. The agency has also acquired additional arms, ammunition and night-vision equipment.

He disclosed that modern AK-47 rifles had been introduced into the NDLEA armoury as part of efforts to improve the protection of officers and agency facilities against armed criminal groups.

The agency is also developing residential facilities for personnel in strategic locations, particularly to protect officers and their families from possible retaliation by traffickers.

Babafemi said accommodation facilities were already available in Yola, Adamawa State, while projects were ongoing in Lagos, Abuja and Enugu.

He said the measures were aimed at ensuring that officers could conduct anti-drug operations without exposing themselves or their families to unnecessary security risks.

The NDLEA spokesman maintained that the agency would continue to target criminal networks attempting to exploit Nigeria’s forests, waterways, digital platforms and international trafficking corridors.

“We’re winning,” Babafemi said, arguing that the agency’s intensified operations were reducing the ungoverned spaces previously exploited by drug traffickers.