By Oluwakemi Kindness
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has warned that Nigeria is being targeted as a potential base for foreign drug cartels seeking to establish industrial-scale methamphetamine production.
The agency raised thw alarm on Tuesday while stating that it has dismantled another industrial methamphetamine laboratory in Ebonyi State and arrested a Mexican drug kingpin who allegedly attempted to flee Nigeria through the Lagos airport.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), disclosed this on Tuesday through the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi in Lagos.
Marwa said the latest operation followed months of investigation into a wider network linked to clandestine drug laboratories uncovered in Ogun and Oyo states.
According to him, investigations into the arrest of Mexican methamphetamine expert Jose Villa Ochoa at a forest laboratory in Oyo State led operatives to Arturo Carrera Loaiza, whom the suspect identified as the man who recruited him into Nigeria.
NDLEA said operatives arrested Loaiza on August 19 while he was attempting to leave the country through the Lagos airport.
Investigators later linked images of Loaiza in a laboratory coat to a property under construction in Isiata Ugoni Okposi, Ebonyi State.
A raid on the property and subsequent investigation led NDLEA operatives to an isolated house where laboratory equipment and large quantities of chemicals used in methamphetamine production were recovered.
The agency said the recovery included 442.8kg of acetone, 37.1kg of toluene, 31.5kg of hydrochloric acid, 200kg of P2B and other chemicals, equipment and laboratory paraphernalia.
NDLEA said CCTV footage from the Ebonyi property also showed Loaiza at the site and captured the movement of chemicals and laboratory equipment from the premises.
Marwa warned that Nigeria would not become a safe haven for international drug cartels seeking to relocate their laboratories into the country’s forests and rural communities.
He said the arrests and laboratory seizures in Ogun, Oyo and Ebonyi showed that NDLEA’s intelligence and forensic capabilities could match sophisticated transnational drug networks.
“We will not allow Nigeria to become a haven for transnational drug cartels,” Marwa said.
He commended officers involved in the operations and vowed that the agency would continue pursuing the network, its financiers and local enablers.
NDLEA also urged residents of rural and forested communities to report suspicious activities, unusual chemical odours and unfamiliar structures to the agency.
