Mexican cartels are using Nigeria as a meth production base, and the latest meth lab raid in Nigeria has put that shift in plain view. In a forest two hours from Lagos, a judge, lawyers and drug agents gathered inside an alleged illicit laboratory where Mexicans and Nigerians were accused of making methamphetamine.
Three Mexicans and seven Nigerians were brought before Justice Musa Kakaki in handcuffs as he inspected the chemicals and equipment investigators said were used to produce the drug, also known as crystal meth or ice. Officials described the scene as a crude, temporary lab, with drums of liquid meth hardening into crystals, vats of unprocessed product, propane cylinders and bags of caustic soda scattered through an unfinished building.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said the May arrest was the country’s largest meth seizure ever, with more than two tonnes of the drug worth about $360 million. The agency said it had broken up a highly sophisticated Nigerian-Mexican syndicate. A month later, agents uncovered another meth lab in nearby Oyo State and arrested five more suspects, including a Mexican methamphetamine expert.
Those raids are part of a wider pattern that law enforcement officials say shows West Africa is becoming more attractive to drug producers, not just traffickers. Mexicans who specialize in meth production, often called cooks, are increasingly being found in labs across Africa and Europe. James Griego, who leads counter-narcotics operations for US-Africa Command, said Mexican meth has become the highest-purity, highest-potency version of the drug and said the cartels have spread their operations across the continent.
