By Peace Udugba
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has raised the alarm over attempts by international drug cartels to establish operational footholds in Nigeria, revealing that Mexican-linked criminal networks have been associated with the establishment of industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratories in forests across Ogun and Oyo states.
The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this on Thursday during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, Ogun State.
Babafemi said the agency had uncovered attempts by foreign criminal networks to penetrate Nigeria’s illicit drug market, adding that operatives were taking the fight directly to the cartels rather than waiting for illicit substances to be transported through airports, seaports and highways.
According to him, recent operations uncovered activities in forests in Ogun and Oyo states, while another operation in the South-East led to arrests.
“We’ve seen recently the collaboration between the Nigerian-Mexican cartels trying to have methamphetamine laboratories in the forests of Ogun and Oyo states, and just a few days ago, we had one again in Ebonyi State,” he said.
Babafemi added that those behind the Ebonyi operation had been arrested and that the agency would make further details public after completing the necessary procedures.
He said the developments demonstrated the increasingly international nature of drug trafficking and the determination of foreign cartels to establish production bases in Nigeria.
“They are trying to come in through whatever means they have to establish footholds because it’s a global phenomenon, it’s a global challenge, so they are all networked, and that’s why we also, as law enforcement, network with our counterparts,” he said.
NDLEA Targets Cartels’ Financial Networks
Babafemi said the NDLEA was strengthening collaboration with other Nigerian security agencies because the drug war could not be effectively handled by one organisation alone.
He said the agency’s strategy had shifted towards intelligence sharing, disrupting supply chains and dismantling drug networks at their sources.
“We’re mopping up all of those floods of illicit substances across our communities and our streets, but beyond that, we’re taking this to them, right wherever they may be trying to do this,” he said.
The spokesman said the NDLEA was also targeting the financial backbone of drug cartels and their operational assets.
“We are dismantling all their structures and disabling their capacity and capability, whether in terms of their financial backbone or their instrumentalities,” he said.
Cartels Reroute Drugs Through Neighbouring Countries
Babafemi said international drug trafficking networks were adapting their routes in response to increased enforcement at Nigerian airports and seaports.
According to him, some traffickers now move illicit substances through neighbouring countries before attempting to smuggle them into Nigeria.
“These people already know that it’s difficult for them to come into Nigeria through airports or seaports, so we’ve also seen the trend that they would take some of these illicit substances to some neighbouring countries from where they want to come into Nigeria,” he said.
He cited the dismantling of a cartel operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor, describing it as a route that had for years contributed to the opioid abuse crisis among Nigerian youths.
NDLEA Monitors Social Media, Dark Web
The NDLEA spokesman also disclosed that the agency was expanding its capacity to monitor drug trafficking activities in cyberspace.
He said several arrests had resulted from intelligence gathered from social media, adding that the agency monitors both mainstream social media platforms and the dark web.
Babafemi said the NDLEA was also monitoring cryptocurrency networks and dark-web marketplaces, while officers were receiving specialised training in financial investigation, asset tracing and recovery of proceeds from narcotics trafficking.
“We are a modern front-line agency. Quite a number of our arrests have emanated from social media,” he said.
He added that the agency was strengthening its capacity to trace and recover assets linked to drug trafficking and organised crime.
NDLEA Targets Influencers Promoting Drug Use
Babafemi said the agency was also concerned about social media influencers who glamorise illicit drug use.
He said the NDLEA had engaged stakeholders in the entertainment industry, including the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) and the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, to discourage the promotion of illicit substances.
According to him, the agency had adopted a “stick and carrot” approach, combining enforcement with engagement and advocacy.
“For those that we see out of line, we deploy the stick approach, we get them. And then the other approach is the carrot, trying to get some of these people, work with them as individuals, work with them as groups to ensure that they have a rethink,” he said.
He said the objective was to encourage influencers to understand the consequences of their messages and change narratives that could encourage drug abuse.
NDLEA Warns Against Rising Synthetic Drug Threat
Babafemi said the agency’s concerns extended beyond cannabis, cocaine and tramadol to synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and Captagon.
He explained that cocaine was not produced in Nigeria but was transported from South America through Africa before being moved to Europe and other destinations.
According to him, the high international value of drugs was one of the factors driving criminal networks to establish trafficking routes and production facilities.
He said a kilogramme of methamphetamine or cocaine could reportedly fetch as much as $500,000 in some parts of the world.
Babafemi disclosed that the methamphetamine laboratory discovered in an Ogun forest had the potential to produce drugs estimated at almost half a trillion naira in value.
NDLEA Introduces Alternative Livelihoods for Cannabis Farmers
The agency has also introduced an Alternative Development Programme designed to encourage cannabis farmers to abandon illicit cultivation and adopt legitimate livelihoods.
Babafemi said the pilot programme was launched in three communities in Ondo State — Ifon, Ilu-Abo and Eleyewo.
He said the initiative was designed to encourage cannabis farmers to embrace activities such as poultry farming, fishing and other legitimate agricultural ventures.
“The whole essence of that programme was to help these areas where predominantly cannabis was being cultivated,” he said.
Babafemi said NDLEA officials had continued to monitor the programme and that the results had been encouraging.
NDLEA Strengthens Marine Operations
The NDLEA spokesman said the agency’s Marine Command was also monitoring Nigeria’s waterways amid concerns about the use of small boats to move illicit substances around large vessels.
He said Marine Command personnel had received training in countries including the United Kingdom, United States and Brazil.
According to him, the command had recorded drug seizures at ports and on the high seas.
Babafemi disclosed that cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis had recently been seized on the high seas in Akwa Ibom State.
He said the consignment was allegedly being transported to Cameroon.
“Just last week, there were consignments of cocaine, meth and cannabis that were seized on the high sea in Akwa Ibom State. That consignment was being taken to the Republic of Cameroon,” he said.
NDLEA Boosts Security Equipment for Officers
Babafemi also disclosed that NDLEA personnel were receiving additional security equipment and specialised training because of the increasingly dangerous nature of drug trafficking operations.
He said officers had received life and injury insurance coverage and undergone specialised training, while the agency had acquired arms and ammunition, protective equipment, night-vision equipment and bulletproof operational vehicles.
He added that modern AK-47 rifles had been introduced into the NDLEA armoury for the first time in the agency’s history.
“All our personnel have been going through a lot of elite training across the world to equip them with the right skills to defend themselves,” he said.
According to him, the additional equipment was intended to strengthen the ability of officers to confront heavily armed criminal networks.
NDLEA Builds Accommodation for Officers
The spokesman said the agency was also establishing residential accommodation for personnel in strategic locations to protect officers and their families from possible retaliation by drug traffickers.
He disclosed that accommodation projects were ongoing in Yola, Lagos, Abuja and Enugu.
“For the first time in the history of the agency, we are having barracks in parts of the country, so that our officers can stay in a secure environment with their family without the fear of going back to the midst of the same community where they have gone to arrest drug traffickers or drug dealers,” Babafemi said.
‘No Ungoverned Space for Drug Cartels’
Babafemi said the NDLEA remained determined to prevent criminal organisations from exploiting forests, waterways, digital platforms and international routes as ungoverned spaces for drug production and trafficking.
“We’re winning. As much as they want to continue to push this, we’re ensuring that they don’t have that space, the ungoverned space that they used to enjoy before now. That’s no longer the case,” he said.
