The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has dismantled an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory in Ebonyi State and arrested a Mexican national it described as a kingpin in a transnational drug cartel.
Speaking on Tuesday in Lagos, NDLEA Chairman, Buba Marwa, said the Mexican national, Arturo Carrera Loaiza, was arrested while allegedly attempting to leave Nigeria through the Lagos airport.
Marwa, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said Loaiza’s arrest followed months of investigation into a network allegedly connected to clandestine methamphetamine laboratories discovered in different parts of the country.
According to him, NDLEA operatives arrested Loaiza on August 19 as he attempted to flee the country.
Marwa said investigations following the June 17 arrest of Jose Villa Ochoa, a 56-year-old Mexican methamphetamine expert, at a clandestine laboratory in Tapa village, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, led investigators to Loaiza.
He said Ochoa identified Loaiza as the Mexican national who recruited him and brought him to Nigeria.
Marwa added that intelligence obtained in collaboration with international partners established that Loaiza entered Nigeria on June 10 alongside another Mexican national, Jose Ceballos Perez.
According to the NDLEA chairman, Loaiza initially told investigators that a Nigerian contact identified only as “Henry” invited him to Nigeria for a restaurant business. He also denied having any knowledge of methamphetamine production.
However, investigators allegedly recovered photographs showing Loaiza dressed in a blue laboratory coat and standing near equipment believed to be associated with methamphetamine production.
“Our findings told a different story. Investigators recovered images of Arturo dressed in a blue laboratory coat, standing amid equipment consistent with methamphetamine production. Analysis of the location metadata embedded in these images led our operatives to a property undergoing construction at Isiata Ugoni Okposi, Ebonyi state,” Marwa said.
“A CCTV memory card recovered from the property proved decisive. Forensic review of the footage showed a foreign national in a blue laboratory coat on the premises, matching the image of Arturo Carrera Loaiza earlier recovered, as well as repeated appearances by John Samuel Ivo Okike. Critically, the footage captured, at about 9:00 p.m. on 21st August 2026, the movement of chemicals and laboratory equipment out of the property, with John Samuel Ivo Okike seen directing the operation alongside others assisting in the relocation.”
He said further intelligence led NDLEA operatives to an isolated house in a neighbouring community, where the materials were allegedly moved and kept by Nwanja Obasi.
Marwa said the agency subsequently recovered chemicals linked to methamphetamine production, laboratory equipment and other paraphernalia from the location.
“A dehydrator containing a white cloth sieve embedded with loose methamphetamine, and three additional empty dehydrators; 442.8 kg of Acetone, 37.1 kg of Toluene, a 20 kg mixture of Acetone/Bromobenzene, 1.7 kg of Ethanol, 5.1 kg of Chloride Salt, 31.5 kg of Hydrochloric acid, 200 kg of P2B, and 1 kg of Tartaric acid; Condensing units, a condenser head, a condenser, and a fabricated reaction pot,” Marwa said.
The NDLEA had earlier dismantled another large-scale clandestine methamphetamine production facility in Oyo State in June.
The agency said that laboratory, located in Tapa village, Ibarapa North Local Government Area, was hidden inside a forest and was uncovered during a raid carried out by its tactical operatives.
Source: NDLEA
