Just a few months after similar operations in two locations in South West Nigeria, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has dismantled another industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory located at Isiata Ugoni Okposi, Ebonyi State.
The raid which followed months of painstaking investigation, resulted in the arrest of a Mexican drug kingpin, Arturo Carrera Loaiza who was on the verge of fleeing the country through the murtala Mohammed international airport Lagos.
Briefing Newsmen on the development in Lagos on Tuesday, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), attributed the breakthrough to painstaking investigation into a wider criminal network surrounding the emergence of clandestine drug laboratories in parts of the country this year.
Represented by the Agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, Gen Marwa recalled that operatives had earlier this year arrested three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerian collaborators at a forest hideout in Ogun State on Saturday, 16th May 2026, and, on 17th June, arrested another Mexican national alongside four Nigerian collaborators at a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory hidden in a forested part of Tapa village, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State on the same issue.
As he put it, investigations by the Agency’s Special Operations Unit into the Oyo State arrest led operatives to establish that the 56-year-old Mexican Methamphetamine expert, Jose Villa Ochoa arrested at the forest lab had been recruited into Nigeria by the Mexican kingpin Arturo Carrera Loaiza.
According to him, Working with international partners, NDLEA investigators obtained a photograph of Loaiza, which the arrested suspect positively identified as the man who recruited and moved him into Nigeria.
He also pointed out that Intelligence further showed that Loaiza entered Nigeria on 10th June 2026, alongside another Mexican national, Jose Ceballos Perez.Geographic Reference
The Agency’s narration goes thus, “On 19th August 2026, our operatives tracked down and arrested Arturo Carrera Loaiza attempting to flee the country through the Lagos airport. During interrogation, he claimed he had been invited to Nigeria by a Nigerian contact, identified only as “Henry,” under the guise of a restaurant business venture, and denied any knowledge of methamphetamine manufacturing or involvement with the Tapa village laboratory.
“However, our findings told a different story. Investigators recovered images of Arturo dressed in a blue laboratory coat, standing amid equipment consistent with methamphetamine production. Analysis of the location metadata embedded in these images led our operatives to a property undergoing construction at Isiata Ugoni Okposi, Ebonyi State.
“On 30th August 2026, our operatives moved on the Ebonyi State property, linked to one John Samuel Ivo Okike. Interviews with persons found at the site, including the site engineer and a caretaker, revealed the erection of a suspicious temporary structure over the septic tank area at the rear of the building, and persistent strong chemical odours emanating from the premises.
“A CCTV memory card recovered from the property proved decisive. Forensic review of the footage showed a foreign national in a blue laboratory coat on the premises, matching the image of Arturo Carrera Loaiza earlier recovered, as well as repeated appearances by John Samuel Ivo Okike.
“Critically, the footage captured, at about 9:00 p.m. on 21st August 2026, the movement of chemicals and laboratory equipment out of the property, with John Samuel Ivo Okike seen directing the operation alongside others assisting in the relocation.
“Acting on further intelligence from a confidential source, operatives traced the relocated materials to an isolated house in a neighbouring community, kept under the custody of one Nwanja Obasi. A raid on this location led to the recovery of a substantial cache of methamphetamine-related chemicals, equipment and paraphernalia, including:
“A dehydrator containing a white cloth sieve embedded with loose methamphetamine, and three additional empty dehydrators; 442.8 kg of Acetone, 37.1 kg of Toluene, a 20 kg mixture of Acetone/Bromobenzene, 1.7 kg of Ethanol, 5.1 kg of Chloride Salt, 31.5 kg of Hydrochloric acid, 200 kg of P2B, and 1 kg of Tartaric acid; Condensing units, a condenser head, a condenser, and a fabricated reaction pot. Additional equipment including an access pump, weighing scales, mixers, drums, gas burners, gloves, and a blue laboratory coat matching the one recovered at the John Samuel property.
“This recovery, taken together with the CCTV evidence, other forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts, has significantly strengthened the case against all persons connected to this network.”
“The arrest of Arturo Carrera Loaiza and the dismantling of the Ebonyi State facility, coming so soon after the Ogun and Oyo State operations, demonstrate that this Agency’s intelligence and forensic capabilities are more than a match for these syndicates, however sophisticated they may believe themselves to be.”
On the resolve of the NDLEA, Gen Marwa vowed that the Agency would continue pursuing every lead until the full network, its financiers and local enablers are brought to justice.
