NDLEA arrests Nigerian-Mexican meth cartel, seizes N480bn drugs in Ogun forest
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has dismantled a major Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine cartel, arresting its alleged kingpin, three Mexican nationals and six other suspects in coordinated operations across Ogun and Lagos states.
The operation led to the discovery and shutdown of what the agency described as the largest clandestine meth laboratory ever uncovered in Nigeria, hidden inside a forest in the Ijebu area of Ogun State.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), disclosed the development during a media briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, operatives of the agency’s Special Operations Unit carried out simultaneous raids after months of intelligence gathering, targeting the cartel’s forest laboratory in Ogun and the Lagos residence of the alleged drug baron, Anochili Innocent.
At the forest laboratory located in Abidagba forest, Ijebu East Local Government Area, operatives arrested seven suspects, including three Mexican methamphetamine experts identified as Martinez Felix Nemecto, Jesus López Valles and Torrero Juan Carlos, alongside four Nigerian collaborators.
“Through a clinical, simultaneous operation executed by the elite operatives of our Special Operations Unit, we have successfully dismantled a sophisticated, transnational methamphetamine production syndicate run jointly by a Nigerian drug cartel and their Mexican counterparts. This network did not just traffic drugs; they were actively manufacturing industrial-scale quantities of highly lethal illicit substances right on our soil, threatening the national security and public health of Nigeria,” Marwa said.
He added that the cartel’s alleged mastermind, Anochili Innocent, was arrested at his residence in the Lakowe area of Lekki, Lagos, where operatives recovered the passports and mobile phones of the Mexican suspects. Another suspect, Kingsley Orike Omonughwa, was later arrested during follow-up operations at a property linked to the syndicate.
Marwa said the operation yielded 2,419.48 kilograms of methamphetamine and precursor chemicals valued at about $362.9 million, estimated at over N480 billion. He warned that Nigeria had become a hostile environment for drug cartels and vowed that the agency would continue tracking criminal networks and foreign collaborators operating within the country.
