Nigeria Arrests Alleged Mexican Drug Kingpin in Lagos, Uncovers Meth Lab in Ebonyi

• Nigerian drug enforcement agents detained 40-year-old Arturo Carrera Loaiza at Lagos airport last month as he attempted to leave the country
• Digital images found on Loaiza at the time of his arrest led officers to a suspected methamphetamine laboratory in Ebonyi state
• The discovery marks the third suspected industrial-scale meth lab allegedly linked to Mexican nationals uncovered in Nigeria within four months

Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has revealed the arrest of an alleged Mexican drug kingpin at Lagos international airport and the subsequent discovery of a suspected industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory in Ebonyi state.

Arturo Carrera Loaiza, 40, was detained last month as he attempted to depart Nigeria.

BBC reported that at the time of his arrest, NDLEA officials said they recovered digital images on his device showing him in what appeared to be a laboratory coat alongside equipment consistent with methamphetamine production.

Geolocation data embedded in those photographs directed investigators to a property in Ebonyi state. There, officers said they found chemicals and drug-making equipment.

Read also

Kim Kardashian gets €1 damages years after being robbed in Paris

A CCTV memory card recovered at the site contained footage appearing to show a man resembling Loaiza wearing a blue laboratory coat. A Nigerian man was also visible in the footage, reportedly directing others as they removed chemicals and equipment from the premises.

Further intelligence gathered by NDLEA led investigators to a second location in a neighbouring community, where additional materials were recovered, including dehydrators, condensers, a reaction pot, weighing scales, mixers, drums, gas burners and a sieve with traces of methamphetamine.

Loaiza has denied any involvement in drug manufacturing. In a statement, he said he had travelled to Nigeria at the invitation of a local contact in connection with a restaurant business venture.

Third Suspected Lab in Four Months

NDLEA chairman Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa said investigators also linked Loaiza to a separate suspected methamphetamine laboratory raided in June, hidden in a forest in Oyo state. Loaiza is alleged to have recruited and transported a fellow Mexican national to work at that site. Four Nigerians were also arrested following that operation.

Read also

Joy as missing 4-year-old Polycarp Newton reunites with mother in Huruma

A month prior to the Oyo raid, NDLEA officers dismantled what the agency described as another industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory concealed in a forest elsewhere in the country, arresting three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerians.

Marwa said the pattern of discoveries pointed to organised international criminal groups deliberately seeking to establish drug production infrastructure within Nigeria's forests and rural communities.

"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," he said.

Source: YEN.com.gh