The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has dismantled another industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory in Ebonyi State and arrested a fleeing Mexican drug kingpin, Arturo Carrera Loaiza, at the Lagos airport, in an operation that has exposed desperate attempts by transnational cartels to infiltrate Nigeria’s forests.
Briefing journalists in Lagos on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), said the breakthrough followed months of painstaking investigation into a wider criminal network behind a string of clandestine laboratories uncovered this year. He was represented by the Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
Marwa recalled that operatives had on May 16, 2026, arrested three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerian collaborators at a forest hideout in Ogun State, and on June 17, arrested another Mexican, 56-year-old meth expert Jose Villa Ochoa, alongside four Nigerian collaborators at a forest laboratory in Tapa village, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, where field tests confirmed large quantities of methamphetamine and precursor chemicals.
According to the agency, investigations by its Special Operations Unit, SOU, established that Ochoa was recruited into Nigeria by Arturo Carrera Loaiza. Working with international partners, NDLEA obtained a photograph of Loaiza which Ochoa positively identified as his recruiter. Intelligence further showed that Loaiza entered Nigeria on June 10, 2026, alongside another Mexican national, Jose Ceballos Perez.
On August 19, 2026, operatives tracked and arrested Loaiza while he was attempting to flee through the Lagos airport. During interrogation, he claimed he was invited by a Nigerian contact identified only as “Henry” for a restaurant business and denied any involvement in meth production. However, investigators recovered images of him in a blue laboratory coat amid equipment consistent with methamphetamine production, with location metadata leading operatives to a property under construction at Isiata Ugoni Okposi, Ebonyi State, linked to one John Samuel Ivo Okike.
On August 30, NDLEA raided the Ebonyi property. Interviews with the site engineer and caretaker revealed a suspicious temporary structure over the septic tank area and strong chemical odours. A recovered CCTV memory card showed a foreigner in a blue lab coat matching Loaiza, and John Samuel Ivo Okike directing the movement of chemicals and laboratory equipment out of the property around 9:00 p.m. on August 21, 2026.
Acting on intelligence, operatives traced the relocated materials to an isolated house kept by one Nwanja Obasi in a neighbouring community. A raid led to the recovery of a substantial cache including a dehydrator with methamphetamine, three empty dehydrators, 442.8kg of Acetone, 37.1kg of Toluene, 200kg of P2B, Hydrochloric acid, and other precursor chemicals, as well as condensers, reaction pots, weighing scales, drums, gas burners and a blue laboratory coat.
Warning transnational cartels, Marwa said, “Let me be unequivocal, Nigeria will not be allowed to become a haven for transnational drug cartels seeking to relocate their laboratories into our forests and rural communities.” He commended officers of the SOU, Strike Force, Forensics and Ogun, Oyo and Ebonyi Commands for their diligence and vowed to pursue every lead until all financiers and enablers are brought to justice, while urging Nigerians to report suspicious activities via the NDLEA toll-free line 080010203040.
