The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has taken down what it calls an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory hidden away in Ebonyi State. Their biggest catch? A Mexican national, identified as a major player in the drug trade, who was nabbed trying to sneak out of Nigeria at the Lagos airport.
This bust didn't happen overnight. It's the result of months of digging into a network that intelligence suggests is trying to set up meth production hubs right here in Nigeria. The network's using our forests and rural areas as hideouts. Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd), the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, shared the details. The agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, spoke on his behalf.
This isn't the first time Mexicans have popped up in these meth busts. Back on May 16, 2026, NDLEA agents rounded up three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerians in a hideout in Ogun State. Then, on June 17, another Mexican and four Nigerians were caught at a suspected meth lab in a forest in Tapa village, Oyo State. Field tests at that Oyo location confirmed the presence of both methamphetamine and the nasty chemicals needed to make it.
The investigation into the Oyo bust really put the spotlight on the alleged kingpin. The 56-year-old Mexican arrested there, Jose Villa Ochoa, apparently told investigators he was brought to Nigeria by another Mexican named Arturo Carrera Loaiza. The NDLEA, working with international partners, got a photo of Loaiza. Ochoa pointed to it, saying that was the man who recruited him and arranged his travel into Nigeria.
Intelligence suggests Loaiza didn't come alone. He apparently entered Nigeria on June 10, 2026, with another Mexican, Jose Ceballos Perez. Loaiza was eventually caught. On August 19, he was intercepted at the Lagos airport as he was trying to leave the country. When questioned, Loaiza claimed he was invited by a Nigerian contact known only as “Henry,” supposedly for a restaurant business. He also denied any knowledge of meth production or the lab in Tapa village.
Yet, the NDLEA says its own findings tell a different story. Investigators found pictures of Arturo Carrera Loaiza looking like he was at work. He was dressed in a blue lab coat, standing amongst equipment that screams methamphetamine production. Pinpointing the location of these photos using metadata led agents to a property under construction in Isiata Ugoni Okposi, Ebonyi State.
When NDLEA operatives checked out the Ebonyi property on August 30, 2026, they linked it to a man named John Samuel Ivo Okike. People working on the site, including a site engineer and caretaker, told investigators about a suspicious temporary structure built over the septic tank at the back of the building. They also complained about strong chemical smells wafting from the place. The real evidence, though, came from a CCTV memory card recovered from the property.
A forensic look at the footage showed a foreign national in a blue lab coat, matching Loaiza’s picture. Okike appeared repeatedly on the property. The video also captured the movement of chemicals and lab equipment out of the building late at night on August 21, 2026. The agency says Okike was seen directing this operation with others, moving the materials.
Following a tip from a confidential source, NDLEA agents tracked the moved materials to an isolated house in a nearby community. There, another man was allegedly guarding the haul. A raid on this location uncovered chemicals, equipment, and other materials believed to be for making meth. Among the recovered items were a dehydrator with traces of methamphetamine caught in a sieve. Three more empty dehydrators were found, along with significant amounts of acetone and toluene, as well as a mixture of acetone and bromobenzene.