The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has uncovered attempts by Nigerian and Mexican criminal networks to establish large-scale methamphetamine production facilities in forested areas of Ogun and Oyo states, raising fresh concerns over the growing international dimension of Nigeria’s illicit drug market.
The agency said foreign criminal organisations were seeking to establish production structures inside Nigeria rather than relying solely on the movement of finished narcotics across international trafficking routes. The development, according to the NDLEA, is part of a broader evolution in the methods being used by organised drug networks.
Femi Babafemi, NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, disclosed the development during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu. He said recent intelligence had exposed efforts to establish clandestine methamphetamine laboratories in forest locations in Ogun and Oyo.
“We’ve seen recently the collaboration between the Nigerian-Mexican cartels trying to have methamphetamine laboratories in the forests of Ogun and Oyo states,” Babafemi said.
The disclosure indicates that the agency is increasingly focusing on the infrastructure behind drug trafficking, including locations where narcotics can be produced, financial networks that sustain criminal operations and the international connections supporting their activities.
Foreign cartels seek foothold in Nigeria
According to Babafemi, the involvement of Mexican criminal organisations demonstrates how Nigeria’s drug problem is becoming increasingly connected to international trafficking networks.
Rather than limiting their activities to importing finished narcotics, criminal groups are attempting to establish production capacity within Nigeria. The forest locations identified in Ogun and Oyo provide the setting for clandestine operations that can be concealed from ordinary detection.
Babafemi said NDLEA operatives were moving beyond conventional seizures and arrests to target trafficking organisations at their operational bases.
He also disclosed that a related operation in Ebonyi State had resulted in arrests, although the agency was expected to provide additional information after completing the necessary procedures.
The NDLEA’s approach, he explained, increasingly involves dismantling criminal structures rather than simply intercepting individual consignments or apprehending couriers.
The agency is strengthening cooperation with law enforcement bodies in Nigeria and other countries because of the cross-border nature of the networks involved.
Babafemi said the international character of the trade makes coordinated law enforcement action essential, particularly as criminal organisations continue to adapt their routes and operating methods.
Traffickers change routes as pressure increases
The NDLEA has also intensified its efforts to identify alternative trafficking corridors as increased controls at airports, seaports and major highways make traditional routes more difficult for criminal groups to use.
Babafemi said some networks were increasingly moving narcotics through neighbouring countries before attempting to bring them into Nigeria.
One example cited by the NDLEA spokesman was the dismantling of a cartel operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor.
He described the corridor as an important route used in the distribution of opioids and other illicit substances in Nigeria, underscoring the role of regional trafficking networks in the country’s drug market.
The agency’s response is therefore expanding from interception to intelligence-led operations designed to identify the people, resources and infrastructure supporting the trade.
“We’re dismantling all their structures and disabling their capacity and capability, whether in terms of their financial backbone or their instrumentalities,” Babafemi said.
The emphasis on financial structures reflects the NDLEA’s effort to target the economic foundation of organised drug trafficking. According to Babafemi, disrupting the money behind the trade is increasingly important to weakening the ability of criminal organisations to continue operating.
NDLEA targets digital drug networks
The agency is also building its ability to investigate narcotics trafficking conducted through digital channels.
Babafemi said criminal networks were increasingly using social media, cryptocurrency networks and the dark web as part of their activities. NDLEA intelligence obtained through social media has already contributed to arrests, he said.
To strengthen its response, officers are receiving specialised training in areas including financial investigations, asset tracing and the recovery of proceeds associated with narcotics trafficking.
The shift means that anti-drug investigations are no longer focused exclusively on physical locations, vehicles, warehouses and conventional trafficking routes. Digital platforms and financial transactions are also becoming important areas of investigation as criminal organisations adopt new methods of communication and payment.
The agency has simultaneously been engaging the entertainment industry over the promotion and glamorisation of illicit drug use.
Babafemi said the NDLEA was working with the Actors Guild of Nigeria and other stakeholders in the entertainment sector to discourage messages that could encourage substance abuse.
Cocaine, methamphetamine seized at sea
Beyond operations on land, the NDLEA is also strengthening its maritime enforcement capabilities.
Babafemi disclosed that the agency’s Marine Command had intercepted consignments containing cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis on the high seas off Akwa Ibom State.
The shipment was reportedly destined for Cameroon.
The operation highlights the importance of Nigeria’s waterways to the wider anti-narcotics effort, particularly as trafficking organisations seek alternatives to routes that are increasingly monitored by law enforcement agencies.
According to Babafemi, personnel of the Marine Command have received specialised training in countries including the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil.
The unit is responsible for monitoring Nigeria’s waterways while supporting anti-drug operations around the country’s maritime environment and ports.
The agency is also widening the range of substances it monitors. While cannabis, cocaine and tramadol remain major areas of concern, Babafemi said the NDLEA was increasingly concentrating on synthetic narcotics such as methamphetamine and Captagon.
Methamphetamine laboratory had huge production potential
Babafemi said cocaine and methamphetamine represent different dimensions of the international narcotics trade.
He explained that cocaine is not produced domestically and originates largely from South America before moving through African trafficking routes toward Europe and other international markets.
The enormous financial returns associated with narcotics, however, continue to attract organised criminal groups. Babafemi said a kilogramme of methamphetamine or cocaine can command extremely high prices in certain international markets.
That financial incentive helps explain the interest of organised criminal groups in establishing production infrastructure.
The methamphetamine laboratory discovered in an Ogun forest was particularly significant because of its potential production value. Babafemi said the facility had the capacity to produce drugs estimated to be worth nearly half a trillion naira.
The scale of that potential output underscores why the NDLEA is treating clandestine laboratories as a major threat rather than viewing drug enforcement simply as a matter of intercepting small quantities carried by individual traffickers.
Alternative livelihoods for cannabis farmers
Alongside enforcement operations, the NDLEA is pursuing an alternative strategy aimed at reducing the economic dependence of communities on illicit cannabis cultivation.
Babafemi said the agency is implementing an Alternative Development Programme designed to encourage cannabis farmers to abandon illegal cultivation and adopt legitimate economic activities.
The pilot phase was launched in three communities in Ondo State — Ifon, Ilu-Abo and Eleyewo.
Under the initiative, cannabis growers are being encouraged to explore alternative livelihoods including poultry farming and fishing.
The programme is intended to address one of the economic drivers of illicit cultivation by giving farmers other means of earning income.
Rather than relying exclusively on arrests and eradication, the NDLEA is seeking to reduce the incentive for communities to continue cultivating cannabis by helping them develop alternative sources of livelihood.
Babafemi said a second phase of the programme had begun and that the early results had been encouraging.
The initiative forms part of a broader approach in which prevention, enforcement and economic intervention are being pursued alongside one another.
Agency strengthens protection for officers
The NDLEA is also taking steps to improve the operational capacity and personal security of its personnel as the agency confronts increasingly organised criminal groups.
Babafemi said officers had received specialised training and had been provided with life and injury insurance, improved protective equipment and operational vehicles.
The agency has also acquired additional arms, ammunition and night-vision equipment to strengthen its ability to operate in difficult environments.
Babafemi 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 security measures extend beyond the officers themselves. The agency is developing residential facilities in strategic locations to protect personnel and their families from possible retaliation by drug traffickers.
According to Babafemi, accommodation facilities are already available in Yola, Adamawa State, while projects are ongoing in Lagos, Abuja and Enugu.
The housing programme is intended to reduce the vulnerability of officers whose anti-drug activities could expose them and their families to threats from criminal networks.
A broader fight against organised drug crime
The developments outlined by the NDLEA show an increasingly broad approach to combating narcotics trafficking in Nigeria.
The agency is confronting criminal networks at several points simultaneously: clandestine production sites, regional trafficking corridors, maritime routes, digital platforms and financial structures.
The discovery of attempted methamphetamine laboratory operations in Ogun and Oyo forests is particularly significant because it points to efforts by international criminal organisations to establish production capacity within Nigeria.
The alleged links to Mexican cartels also demonstrate that the country’s illicit drug market cannot be viewed solely as a domestic criminal problem. Trafficking networks can operate across borders, shift routes when enforcement pressure increases and use international connections to sustain their activities.
The NDLEA’s response is consequently extending beyond the traditional cycle of seizure and arrest. Intelligence gathering, international cooperation, financial investigations, asset tracing, maritime enforcement and the dismantling of criminal infrastructure have become increasingly important components of the agency’s strategy.
At the same time, the agency is attempting to address the economic conditions that sustain illicit cultivation through its Alternative Development Programme.
For the NDLEA, the objective is not only to intercept drugs already in circulation but to weaken the organisations, financing systems, production facilities and trafficking routes that allow the illegal market to survive.
The attempted establishment of methamphetamine laboratories in Ogun and Oyo forests, the maritime interception off Akwa Ibom and the dismantling of the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria trafficking corridor all form part of that wider enforcement challenge.
With criminal organisations adopting new technologies, exploring new routes and seeking new production locations, the agency’s expanding focus suggests that Nigeria’s anti-narcotics campaign is increasingly being fought as a battle against sophisticated transnational criminal networks rather than isolated drug offences.
NDLEA Uncovers Mexican Cartel Links to Methamphetamine Labs in Ogun, Oyo Forests
