US Hails NDLEA Over Four Mexican-Linked Meth Lab Busts, Marwa Seeks More Support

By Bukar BOLORI

The United States has commended the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for dismantling four clandestine methamphetamine laboratories linked to Mexican drug cartels in Nigeria, describing the operations as a major contribution to the fight against transnational organised crime and the protection of communities across both countries.

The commendation came as the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd), called on Washington to sustain, and if possible increase, its support for the agency, warning that any reduction in assistance could create dangerous gaps that drug trafficking networks and terrorist groups would exploit.

The United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) for Africa and the Middle East, Michael Gonzales, gave the commendation on Tuesday during a visit to the NDLEA national headquarters in Abuja.

Gonzales, who assumed office four months ago, said Nigeria was the obvious first country to visit because of its position as an African economic powerhouse and the operational achievements of the NDLEA.

He said the agency’s record, combined with the longstanding partnership between the two countries, made it imperative for him to see its operations firsthand.

“When I was thinking where does it make the most sense to visit first, Nigeria was a clear answer,” Gonzales said, citing the country’s leadership role on the continent and the “impressive wins” delivered by the NDLEA and its inter-agency partners.

“I wanted to see firsthand where the magic happens, as we say in the United States,” he added.

Gonzales identified the four methamphetamine laboratory discoveries recorded by the NDLEA this year as evidence of the agency’s operational competence, particularly its intelligence-led investigations, inter-agency coordination, cross-border cooperation and effective prosecution of offenders.

He stressed that the international nature of the illicit drug trade required countries to work together, noting that narcotics remained one of the foreign policy issues with the most direct consequences for American families and communities.

According to him, the work of the INL and the NDLEA “fundamentally delivers for the Nigerian people, for the American people.”

The American official also warned that pressure on drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere could redirect trafficking routes towards Africa, making Nigeria’s counter-narcotics operations increasingly important to international security.

He likened the displacement of trafficking flows to “squeezing a balloon”, explaining that intensified enforcement in one region could push criminal networks to seek alternative routes through Africa to Europe and other parts of the world.

Gonzales called for sustained action against transnational criminal organisations, including efforts to disrupt the financial networks that fund their operations, as traffickers increasingly shift from plant-based substances to synthetic drugs that are often more difficult to detect and potentially more lethal.

Marwa, in his response, said the four laboratories linked to Mexican cartels uncovered in Nigeria demonstrated the scale of the threat and the need for stronger international cooperation.

He disclosed that NDLEA operatives had dismantled what he described as the largest clandestine methamphetamine laboratory ever discovered in Nigeria, located in a forest in Ijebu East, Ogun State, where three Mexican methamphetamine experts and their Nigerian collaborators were arrested.

According to him, illicit substances valued at more than $360 million were recovered from the facility.

Barely four weeks later, the agency raided another industrial-scale laboratory at Tapa Village in neighbouring Oyo State, arresting a Mexican methamphetamine expert and four Nigerian collaborators.

Marwa said two additional facilities were subsequently dismantled in Enugu and Ebonyi states, in the South-East, with all four operations linked to Mexican cartels.

“These were not isolated incidents. They show a deliberate attempt to turn Nigeria into a manufacturing hub,” he said.

The NDLEA chairman warned that the cartel operations were not intended merely to supply the Nigerian market but could establish a West African production and trafficking corridor for shipping industrial quantities of methamphetamine to Europe, Asia and the United States.

He argued that intensified pressure on cartel trafficking routes into America had increased the incentive for criminal organisations to develop alternative supply channels.

“Every meth-producing laboratory that we shut down is a supply line that never reaches an American street, and every cartel operative we arrest is one fewer in the pipeline,” Marwa said.

He described the NDLEA’s forensic chemists, investigators and tactical teams as effectively providing “forward defence” for communities in the United States.

Beyond drug trafficking, Marwa said the operations highlighted the growing convergence of narcotics, illegal arms trafficking and terrorism, warning that the proceeds of drug sales could finance weapons purchases and sustain armed groups.

“Crime has no borders, and neither does the threat. The drugs we seize, the arms we intercept and the terrorist financing we trace are not separate problems,” he said.

“When we seize narcotics and illicit weapons in the same operations and along the same routes, we are looking at the convergence of crime. Drug money buys guns, guns sustain armed groups, and armed groups sustain terrorism.”

He added that security threats in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin could not be contained within those areas, just as illicit goods trafficked through West Africa could reach destinations far beyond the region.

Marwa said the partnership with the United States, through INL’s institutional assistance and cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, had strengthened the NDLEA’s capacity in forensic and chemical analysis, professional training, financial-crime investigations and equipment maintenance.

He attributed part of the agency’s operational gains over the past five years to the support, saying the NDLEA had arrested 96,157 drug offenders, including 250 drug barons, seized more than 15.8 million kilogrammes of assorted illicit drugs and secured the conviction of 16,691 traffickers, including major drug kingpins.

The figures, he said, underscored the scale of the agency’s campaign and the importance of maintaining the capabilities needed to investigate and prosecute increasingly sophisticated criminal networks.

Marwa warned that withdrawing or reducing American assistance could undermine these gains at a time when cartels were attempting to expand their operations into Nigeria.

He,therefore, urged Gonzales to convey to the US government the need to preserve the existing level of support and consider increasing it to meet emerging threats.

“INL support, as is, should be maintained if not increased,” he said.

The NDLEA chairman maintained that criminal networks were already cooperating across national boundaries and that governments could not afford to respond in isolation.

His appeal places renewed emphasis on the strategic importance of US-Nigeria counter-narcotics cooperation as Nigerian authorities confront attempts by international cartels to establish industrial-scale synthetic drug production facilities within the country.

For both countries, the challenge extends beyond intercepting consignments and arresting suspects to dismantling the production infrastructure, financial channels and international networks that sustain the illicit trade.