The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, says it has dismantled the largest clandestine methamphetamine laboratory ever uncovered in Nigeria, arresting an alleged drug kingpin, three Mexican nationals and six Nigerian collaborators in coordinated operations across Ogun and Lagos states.
In a statement signed by the NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the operation, carried out by operatives of its Special Operations Unit (SOU), led to the discovery of an industrial-scale methamphetamine production facility hidden inside a forest in Ijebu area of Ogun State and the seizure of over 2.4 tonnes of methamphetamine and related chemicals.
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Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, the NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed Marwa, said the operation followed months of intelligence gathering and surveillance.
According to him, the raids were conducted simultaneously in Ogun and Lagos within 48 hours.
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“Barely two weeks ago, we announced the successful takedown of a high-profile Drug Trafficking Organisation (DTO) headed by Simon Amadi in a complex, multi-country operation involving the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Swiss, French, and the Greek law enforcement agencies. Today, I am proud to announce that the NDLEA has struck another crippling blow to the heart of transnational organised crime.
“Through a clinical, simultaneous operation executed by the elite operatives of our Special Operations Unit (SOU), we have successfully dismantled a sophisticated, transnational methamphetamine production syndicate run jointly by a Nigerian drug cartel and their Mexican counterparts,” Mr Marwa said.
The NDLEA boss said the main target of the operation was a remote property located in Abidagba forest in Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State, allegedly used as a clandestine methamphetamine production site by a syndicate identified as the Anochili Innocent Drug Trafficking Organisation.
He added that another team simultaneously raided a residence at Tafawa Balewa Street, Golf Estate, Lakowe, Lekki, Lagos, where the alleged leader of the cartel, Anochili Innocent, was arrested.
The suspects
Mr Marwa said seven suspects were apprehended at the forest laboratory, including three Mexican nationals allegedly brought into Nigeria to produce methamphetamine.
The arrested Mexicans were identified as Martinez Felix Nemecto, 46; Jesus López Valles, 40; and Torrero Juan Carlos, 51.
The Nigerian suspects arrested at the facility are Nwankwo Sunday Christian, 41; Igwe Abuchi Remijus, 42; Ifeanyichukwu Chibuike Joshua, 23; and Egwuonwu Uchenna Victor, 38.
According to the NDLEA, a search of the Lekki residence allegedly linked the kingpin to the foreign suspects after operatives recovered the passports and mobile phones belonging to the three Mexican nationals.
The agency said follow-up operations on Monday led to the arrest of another suspect, Kingsley Orike Omonughwa, 44, at another property in Mayfair Estate, Lakowe, Lekki, while investigators also raided the residence of another syndicate member, Emeka Nwobum, which was allegedly used as a stash house.
The NDLEA said the arrests brought the total number of suspects in custody to 10.
Seizures
Providing details of the seizures, Mr Marwa said operatives recovered 2,419.48 kilograms of methamphetamine and precursor chemicals with an estimated international street value of $362.9 million, which he said amounts to over N480 billion.
“The operation yielded a massive 2,419.48 kilograms (over 2.4 tons) of chemical materials, including highly toxic, volatile, and crystallized methamphetamine worth Three Hundred and Sixty-Two Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Two Thousand Dollars ($362,922,000.00) in the international market.
“This translates to over Four Hundred and Eighty Billion Naira (N480,000,000,000.00). Imagine this humongous amount in the control of criminal elements,” he said.
The NDLEA chairman said the agency also recovered a Toyota Tacoma vehicle allegedly used at the forest laboratory and a Toyota Highlander linked to the alleged cartel leader.
He warned that the agency would continue targeting drug syndicates operating within and outside Nigeria.
“We are fully aware of the shifting tactics of these cartels, including the disturbing trend of hiring South American cartel specialists to set up production factories in our rural communities.
“Let it be known that no matter how deep into the bush you hide, no matter how secure your gated estate is, the NDLEA will hunt you down, disrupt your networks, and seize your ill-gotten wealth,” he said.
Mr Marwa also urged Nigerians to report suspicious activities in their communities, saying the Ogun forest laboratory had been operating under the guise of a regular farm.
He commended the agency’s operatives and international partners for their support in the operation.
This is not the first time Mexicans have been arrested in connection with methamphetamine production in a major raid on secret laboratory in Nigeria
In 2016, the NDLEA busted a “clandestine” laboratory in Asaba, Delta State, and arrested four Mexicans along with their Nigerian conspirators. They were producing a cocaine-like substance – methamphetamine – with evidence also showing they were running a drug trafficking organisation.
READ ALSO: NDLEA destroys eight-hectare farm, seizes 170kg of cannabis in Cross River
The Mexicans known to be part of a large cartel of drug traffickers with extensive reach around the world are Cervantos Bruno, Rivas Pstiano, Castillo Ctistobal and Patida Pedro.
Faltering prosecution
But the prosecution of the suspects failed to match the severity of the crimes.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Federal High Court judge in Asaba who oversaw the trial, Okon Abang, rebuked the NDLEA in his judgement delivered in December 2022 for entering a deal with the drug barons for a soft punishment. Mr Abang described the deal as uneasonable and sidestep it to impose 10 years’ imprisonment on each of them.
Shortly after the suspects’ arrest in 2016, the NDLEA charged them with five counts that attract between 15 to 25 years in jail under the NDLEA Act.
They all maintained their innocence from the inception of the case in 2016 until recently when they changed their plea to “guilty” in a deal they struck with the NDLEA.
Nearing the end of the prosecution’s case with 13 witnesses already called, the NDLEA entered into a plea agreement with the drug barons, proposing 10 years’ sentence that would be backdated to 2016.
The deal, aimed at reducing the convicts’ jail time by the six years period they had spent in detention while facing trial, was to leave them with less than four years to spend in prison.
Incensed by what he described as an “unreasonable”, “perverse” and “ill-motivated” plea bargain agreement, Mr Abang adopted the 10 years jail time proposed in the plea agreement but refused to backdate it.
He ordered the 10 years sentence to start counting from the day of his judgement
