Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Administration (NDLEA) has announced the arrest of five suspects, who are members of the Nigerian-Mexican cartel, operating an underground synthetic drug production facility in the deep forest of Oyo State in south-western Nigeria.
According to the NDLEA, a Mexican expert sent specifically to oversee the industrial-scale production of methamphetamine was among the suspects arrested when the (NDLEA) dismantled the large-scale clandestine methamphetamine laboratory hidden in the forest of Tapa Village, in the Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State.
The statement by the NDLEA on Wednesday said that the operation, conducted on June 17, 2026, led to the arrest of five cartel members, including a Mexican methamphetamine specialist, Jose Villa Ochoa, 56, who was recruited to provide technical expertise for large-scale synthesis, as well as four Nigerian associates:
Maxwell Uche Nevoh, 30, Olatunji Yusuf, 37,
Bankole Akeem Owolabi, 45, and Ganiu Monsiu, 43.
The statement stated that the laboratory, described as a veritable industrial production line, was equipped with a chemical reactor, two distillation units, three mixer-condensers and two dehydration machines.
According to the statement, the NDLEA seized, among other things, 2-Phenyl-2-propanone (P2P), the primary precursor to methamphetamine; 1,800-litre drums of phenylacetic acid; 300 liters of whitish crystalline substance that tested positive for methamphetamine; as well as sulfuric acid, caustic soda and tartaric acid.
The statement recalled that the seizure comes less than four weeks after the dismantling of a similar laboratory in the Ijebu East forest in Ogun State in south-western Nigeria, revealing, a deliberate attempt to establish the southwest corridor as a synthetic drug production hub.
“Let the message be clear to all cartels, national and international: Nigeria is not and will never be a safe haven for your illicit trade.
“We will find you in the cities, we will hunt you down in the forests, and we will dismantle your deadly infrastructure,” the Director General of the NDLEA. Brig-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) warned.
AC/Sf/fss/gik/APA