Thursday, October 22, 2026 -The United States has warned that Mexican drug cartels are seeking alternative trafficking routes through Africa as increased pressure on their operations in the Western Hemisphere forces them to adapt.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Michael Gonzales, issued the warning on
Tuesday during a visit to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency headquarters
in Abuja. His comments followed the dismantling of four methamphetamine
laboratories in Nigeria this year, which the NDLEA said were linked to Mexican
criminal networks.
Gonzales, whose responsibilities cover Africa and the Middle
East, said Nigeria was his first destination after assuming office four months
ago because of its strategic importance and the agency’s operational record. He
praised the NDLEA’s intelligence-led investigations, cooperation with other
agencies and efforts to prosecute suspects. According to him, the four
laboratory operations demonstrated how coordinated enforcement could disrupt
international supply chains and protect communities beyond Nigeria.
Gonzales described pressure on cartels in the Western
Hemisphere as “squeezing a balloon,” with criminal groups searching for other
routes through Africa to reach Europe and additional markets. He also
highlighted a shift from plant-based narcotics towards synthetic substances,
warning that these could be harder to detect and potentially more dangerous.
The response, he said, must address criminal organisations as interconnected
networks, including the financial systems supporting their activities.
Responding, NDLEA Chairman Buba Marwa said recent
investigations pointed to what the agency considered a deliberate attempt to
establish Nigeria as a methamphetamine manufacturing hub. He said operatives
dismantled a laboratory in a forest in Ijebu East, Ogun State, arresting three
Mexican nationals described by the agency as methamphetamine production
specialists, alongside Nigerian suspects.
Marwa described the facility as the largest clandestine
methamphetamine laboratory discovered by the NDLEA in Nigeria. He said
substances recovered there were valued at more than $360 million. According to
him, another operation approximately four weeks later targeted an
industrial-scale laboratory at Tapa Village in Oyo State, where a Mexican
suspect and four Nigerian suspects were arrested. He added that similar
facilities were subsequently dismantled in Enugu and Ebonyi states.
“These were not isolated incidents. They show a deliberate
attempt to turn Nigeria into a manufacturing hub,” Marwa said. The NDLEA
chairman argued that the facilities were intended to serve international
markets rather than Nigerian consumers alone. He said criminal networks were
seeking a West African corridor through which to move large quantities of
methamphetamine to Europe, Asia and the United States.
Marwa also highlighted connections between trafficking,
illicit weapons and the financing of armed groups, saying these threats
required coordinated action across borders. He credited US assistance with
strengthening the NDLEA’s forensic analysis, investigations, professional
training, financial-crime detection and equipment maintenance.
According to figures he presented, the agency arrested
96,157 drug offenders, including 250 people it described as drug barons, over
the past five years. He said more than 15.8 million kilogrammes of illicit
substances were seized during that period, while 16,691 traffickers were
convicted.
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