The United States has warned that Mexican drug cartels are seeking to establish Nigeria as a major manufacturing base for methamphetamine, with plans to use West Africa as a trafficking corridor to international markets.
The warning followed the discovery and dismantling of four clandestine methamphetamine laboratories in Nigeria by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), amid growing concerns over the activities of transnational criminal networks.
The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Michael Gonzales, raised the concern on Tuesday during a visit to the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja.
Gonzales commended the agency for its recent operations against drug trafficking networks, describing the discovery of the laboratories as evidence of effective intelligence gathering, inter-agency cooperation and coordinated law enforcement.
He said the United States was interested in strengthening its partnership with Nigeria to combat the growing threat posed by illicit drugs and international criminal organisations.
“The reality of the narcotics trade is international. It knows no boundaries, very few constraints,” Gonzales said, stressing the need for countries to work together to disrupt drug trafficking networks.
The US official explained that intensified enforcement against drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere could push traffickers towards alternative routes through Africa to reach markets in Europe, Asia and the United States.
He likened the development to squeezing a balloon, saying pressure on trafficking networks in one region could force them to expand their operations elsewhere.
Gonzales also warned that the growing shift towards synthetic drugs had made the fight against narcotics more challenging, requiring stronger intelligence sharing, advanced investigative capabilities and international cooperation.
Speaking during the visit, NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), said the agency’s recent operations had exposed attempts by Mexican drug cartels to establish methamphetamine production facilities in Nigeria.
Marwa disclosed that the agency had dismantled laboratories in Ogun, Oyo, Enugu and Ebonyi states, with Mexican nationals and their Nigerian collaborators arrested in connection with the operations.
He described the discoveries as evidence of an emerging threat that could have serious implications for Nigeria’s security and public health.
“The Mexican cartel threat is real, and we are confronting it,” the NDLEA chairman said.
According to Marwa, the agency uncovered what he described as the largest clandestine methamphetamine laboratory ever discovered in Nigeria in a forest in Ijebu East, Ogun State.
He said the operation led to the arrest of three Mexican methamphetamine experts and their Nigerian collaborators, while illicit substances valued at more than $360m were recovered.
Marwa added that another industrial-scale laboratory was subsequently raided at Tapa Village in Oyo State, where a Mexican methamphetamine expert and four Nigerian collaborators were arrested.
He said similar facilities were also dismantled in Enugu and Ebonyi states, warning that the discoveries pointed to a coordinated attempt by international drug syndicates to establish production bases in the country.
The NDLEA chairman alleged that the cartels intended to use Nigeria as both a production centre and a transit point for transporting methamphetamine to markets in Europe, Asia and the United States.
He linked the development to increased pressure on drug trafficking routes into America, saying criminal organisations were exploring alternative corridors to sustain their operations.
“These cartels are not setting up in our forests to supply Nigerian consumers alone. They want a West African corridor to ship industrial quantities of methamphetamine to Europe, to Asia, and to American cities,” Marwa said.
He warned that the drug trade was increasingly intertwined with other criminal activities, including illicit arms trafficking and terrorism financing.
According to him, proceeds from drug trafficking could be used to acquire weapons and support armed groups, making the fight against narcotics an important component of broader national and regional security efforts.
“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.
Marwa added that criminal networks operating across the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin and West Africa required a coordinated response from governments and security agencies.
The NDLEA chairman also called on the US government to sustain its assistance to the agency, noting that international cooperation had strengthened its operational capacity.
He said the partnership had supported improvements in forensic and chemical analysis, professional training, investigations, financial crime detection and equipment maintenance.
Marwa disclosed that the agency had arrested 96,157 drug offenders, including 250 drug barons, seized more than 15.8 million kilogrammes of assorted illicit drugs and secured 16,691 convictions over the past five years.
He argued that continued cooperation was necessary to sustain the gains recorded against increasingly sophisticated transnational criminal organisations.
“Traffickers, arms dealers and terrorists cooperate across borders every day, and governments confronting them must do the same,” he said.
The NDLEA chairman urged Washington to maintain, or increase, its support, warning that any reduction in assistance could create operational gaps that criminal networks might exploit.
The US warning underscores growing international concern over the expansion of synthetic drug production and trafficking networks in West Africa, with Nigerian authorities facing increasing pressure to prevent the country from becoming a major hub for illicit drug manufacturing and distribution.
