The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency dismantled a sophisticated methamphetamine production syndicate run jointly by Nigerian and Mexican traffickers, arresting 10 suspects including the alleged kingpin and seizing drugs valued at over ₦480 billion.
Operatives of the NDLEA's Special Operations Unit stormed a clandestine laboratory hidden deep inside Abidagba forest in Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State on May 16. The raid caught cartel members in the act of processing industrial-scale quantities of methamphetamine. The Anochili Innocent Drug Trafficking Organisation ran the facility as a large-scale, highly dangerous illegal drug manufacturing operation, according to NDLEA Chairman Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa.
While the forest team was conducting the raid, another tactical unit simultaneously descended on the Lekki mansion of the alleged cartel mastermind, Anochili Innocent, at No. 8 Tafawa Balewa Street, Golf Estate, Lakowe. Operatives cornered and arrested him there. The search of his residence yielded passports and phones belonging to three arrested Mexican nationals, directly linking Innocent to their importation and operations in Nigeria.
Marwa told journalists in Abuja that the operation spanned 48 hours and involved coordinated raids across Ogun and Lagos states following months of intelligence work. Follow-up operations led to the arrest of another suspect at a second Lekki property and the discovery of a stash house linked to another syndicate member.
The haul was substantial. Operatives seized 2,419.48 kilograms of methamphetamine and precursor chemicals valued at $362.9 million on the international market, equivalent to roughly ₦480 billion. The syndicate did not merely traffic drugs. They manufactured the substances on Nigerian soil, posing what Marwa described as a direct threat to national security and public health.
Marwa framed the operation as the latest blow against transnational organised crime. Two weeks prior, the NDLEA had dismantled a high-profile drug trafficking organisation headed by Simon Amadi in a complex operation involving the US Drug Enforcement Administration and law enforcement agencies from Switzerland, France, and Greece.
The chairman warned that cartels were shifting tactics, hiring South American specialists to establish production factories in rural communities. He pledged that the NDLEA would continue targeting drug traffickers and their collaborators regardless of how remote their hideouts or how fortified their compounds.
The agency will now prosecute the 10 arrested suspects while investigators pursue leads from seized communications and documents.
