Nigeria arrests Mexican national as authorities uncover suspected meth lab

Nigerian authorities have uncovered another suspected methamphetamine laboratory linked to Mexican nationals, raising concerns over attempts by international drug networks to establish production sites in the country.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said 40-year-old Mexican national Arturo Carrera Loaiza was arrested last month at Lagos international airport as he was preparing to leave Nigeria.

According to the agency, investigators found digital images on his devices showing him wearing what appeared to be a laboratory coat, along with equipment believed to be associated with methamphetamine production.

Location data from the images reportedly led officers to a property in Ebonyi state, where they found chemicals and equipment used in the manufacture of synthetic drugs.

Loaiza has denied any involvement in drug production. He told investigators he had travelled to Nigeria after being invited by a local contact to explore a restaurant business, the NDLEA said.

Investigators later recovered a CCTV memory card from the suspected laboratory. The footage allegedly showed a man resembling Loaiza wearing a blue laboratory coat, while a Nigerian man appeared to be supervising the removal of chemicals and equipment from the site.

NDLEA chairman Mohamed Buba Marwa said further intelligence led officers to an isolated house in a nearby community. There, they reportedly found chemicals, dehydrators, condensers, a reaction vessel, weighing scales, mixers, drums, gas burners and a sieve containing traces of methamphetamine.

Authorities have not said how much of the drug the suspected facility could have produced.

The NDLEA also alleges that Loaiza recruited another Mexican national to work at a separate suspected methamphetamine laboratory in a forest in Oyo state. That site was raided in June, leading to the arrest of four Nigerians, according to the agency.

The latest operation follows another raid a month earlier, when three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerians were arrested at what the NDLEA described as an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory concealed in a forest elsewhere in the country.

The agency says the cases point to efforts by international criminal groups to move synthetic drug production into Nigeria's remote areas.

"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," Marwa said.

The investigation remains ongoing, with authorities looking into people they believe may have financed or facilitated the alleged operations.

Methamphetamine differs from drugs such as cocaine and heroin because it does not depend on crops that can only be grown in particular regions. Instead, it can be manufactured using chemicals and specialised equipment, allowing production to be established in a range of locations.

Authorities say the use of remote forests and rural communities could make such facilities harder to detect and dismantle.