The Nigerian National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) dismantled another industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory and detailed how it reached Arturo Carrera Loaiza, the Mexican national identified as the kingpin of the network, arrested when he tried to flee the country through the Lagos airport.
The Chairman and CEO of the NDLEA, Retired Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa, made the case at a press conference held in Lagos on Tuesday, September 15, 2026. His address was read out by the agency’s Director of Media and Promotion, Femi Babafemi.
Marwa noted that Carrera Loaiza’s arrest is the result of months of investigation into a criminal network behind a series of clandestine laboratories found this year in different regions of Nigeria.
The first of these findings occurred on Saturday, May 16, 2026, when NDLEA agents detained three Mexican citizens and seven Nigerian collaborators in a forest hideout in Ogun State.
The second operation occurred on June 17, with the arrest of another Mexican and four Nigerian collaborators in a clandestine laboratory hidden in a forested area of Tapa village, in Ibarapa North local government area, Oyo State. Field tests confirmed large quantities of methamphetamine and precursor chemicals at that site.
