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Lagos, Nigeria — September 15, 2026
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a Mexican national, Arturo Carrera Loaiza, as he attempted to flee Nigeria through the Lagos airport, and dismantled a suspected industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory in Ebonyi State uncovered through evidence recovered during his arrest.
NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd.), represented by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed the development while briefing journalists in Lagos on Tuesday. Marwa described the breakthrough as the latest in a months-long investigation into a wider transnational drug network operating across multiple Nigerian states.
How the trail led from Ogun to Oyo to Ebonyi
According to the NDLEA, the investigation began on May 16, 2026, when operatives arrested three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerian collaborators at a forest hideout in Ogun State. On June 17, a separate operation led to the arrest of another Mexican national, 56-year-old Jose Villa Ochoa, along with four Nigerian collaborators, at a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory hidden in a forested area of Tapa village, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State.
Investigations into the Oyo operation established that Ochoa had been recruited and brought into Nigeria by Loaiza. International collaboration allowed NDLEA investigators to obtain a photograph of Loaiza, which Ochoa positively identified as the man who recruited him. Intelligence further showed Loaiza had entered Nigeria on June 10, 2026, alongside another Mexican national, Jose Ceballos Perez.
Loaiza was tracked and arrested on August 19, 2026, while attempting to leave the country through Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. During interrogation, he claimed he had been invited to Nigeria by a contact identified only as “Henry” for a restaurant business venture, and denied any knowledge of methamphetamine production or involvement with the Tapa village laboratory.
Investigators said evidence recovered during the probe contradicted his account: images recovered showed Loaiza dressed in a blue laboratory coat, standing amid equipment consistent with methamphetamine production. Analysis of location metadata embedded in the images led operatives to a property under construction at Isiata Ugoni Okposi in Ebonyi State. A raid on a nearby house recovered methamphetamine-related chemicals and laboratory equipment, including 442.8 kilograms of acetone, 37.1 kilograms of toluene, and 31.5 kilograms of hydrochloric acid.
Wider network and prosecutions
The NDLEA said the agency has already charged 10 people — including the three Mexican nationals arrested at the Ogun State forest laboratory — over the alleged production of 2,419.48 kilograms of methamphetamine. All have pleaded not guilty.
Marwa vowed the agency would not allow Nigeria to become a base for relocated drug cartel operations. “Let me be unequivocal, Nigeria will not be allowed to become a haven for transnational drug cartels seeking to relocate their laboratories from other jurisdictions into our forests and rural communities,” he said. “The arrest of Arturo Carrera Loaiza and the dismantling of the Ebonyi State facility, coming so soon after the Ogun and Oyo State operations, demonstrate that this agency’s intelligence and forensic capabilities are more than a match for these syndicates, however sophisticated they may believe themselves to be.”
He commended officers of the agency’s Special Operations Unit, Strike Force, Forensics department, and the Oyo, Ogun, and Ebonyi State commands, and said the NDLEA would continue pursuing every lead until the full network — including its financiers and local enablers — is brought to justice.
