LAGOS, Nigeria — The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, that it had dismantled an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory in Ebonyi State and arrested a Mexican national accused of organising a cross-border drug-manufacturing network.
Arturo Carrera Loaiza was detained at a Lagos airport on August 19 while allegedly attempting to leave the country, the agency said.
Investigators subsequently connected him to the Ebonyi facility through photographs, location data, surveillance recordings, and witness accounts, according to an NDLEA statement.
Loaiza denied knowing about methamphetamine production or a previously uncovered laboratory in Oyo State.
He told investigators that a Nigerian contact identified only as Henry had invited him to the country for a restaurant venture, the agency said.
Photographs Led Investigators to Ebonyi
The investigation took a new direction after officers recovered photographs showing Loaiza in a blue laboratory coat beside equipment associated with methamphetamine production, according to the NDLEA.
Location information embedded in the images led officers to a property under construction at Isiata Ugoni Okposi in Ebonyi State.
The agency said the property was linked to John Samuel Ivo Okike.
Operatives searched the building on August 30.
A site engineer and a caretaker told investigators about a temporary structure erected above the septic tank area and persistent chemical odours at the property, the NDLEA said.
Officers also recovered a memory card containing surveillance recordings.
The agency said the footage appeared to show a foreign national resembling Loaiza at the property in a blue laboratory coat.
Okike was also recorded at the site on several occasions, according to investigators.
Footage from the night of August 21 showed laboratory equipment and chemicals being removed from the property, the agency said.
Investigators alleged that Okike directed the relocation while other people moved the materials.
Chemicals Recovered at a Second Property
Information from a confidential source led officers to an isolated house in a neighbouring community, where the transferred materials were allegedly being kept under the supervision of Nwanja Obasi.
The NDLEA said officers recovered a dehydrator containing a cloth sieve with loose methamphetamine, three empty dehydrators, condensing equipment, and a fabricated reaction vessel.
The reported chemical seizure included 442.8 kilograms of acetone, 200 kilograms of P2B, 37.1 kilograms of toluene, 31.5 kilograms of hydrochloric acid, and a 20-kilogram mixture of acetone and bromobenzene.
Agents also found ethanol, chloride salt, tartaric acid, weighing scales, mixers, drums, gas burners, gloves, pumps, and a blue laboratory coat resembling the one seen at the first property, the agency said.
The NDLEA did not announce the amount of finished methamphetamine recovered beyond the loose substance found in the dehydrator.
Earlier Arrests Led to Loaiza
The Ebonyi operation emerged from investigations into two other suspected methamphetamine laboratories uncovered in Ogun and Oyo States.
In May, NDLEA officers arrested three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerian suspects at a forest property in Ogun State.
A second operation in June led officers to a laboratory in a wooded part of Tapa village in the Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State.
The agency arrested Jose Villa Ochoa, a 56-year-old Mexican national whom it described as a methamphetamine specialist, and four Nigerian suspects.
Field tests at the Oyo property detected methamphetamine and precursor chemicals, the NDLEA said.
Investigators alleged that Loaiza recruited Ochoa and arranged for him to enter the country.
Working with international partners, officers obtained a photograph of Loaiza that Ochoa identified as depicting the man who brought him into the operation, according to the agency.
The NDLEA said Loaiza entered the country on June 10 with another Mexican national, Jose Ceballos Perez.
Agency Pledges Further Investigation
Mohamed Buba Marwa, the NDLEA’s chairman and chief executive, said the three operations demonstrated the agency’s ability to investigate international drug-manufacturing networks.
He spoke through Femi Babafemi, the agency’s director of media and advocacy, at a briefing in Lagos.
“Nigeria will not be allowed to become a haven for transnational drug cartels,” Marwa said.
He said investigators would continue pursuing evidence concerning the wider network, including its suspected financiers and local facilitators.
The allegations against Loaiza and the other people named by the agency have not been adjudicated in court.
