NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu.
Babafemi said the agency recently detected clandestine efforts by Nigerian and Mexican drug cartels to establish methamphetamine production facilities in forested areas, noting that the NDLEA was shifting its focus from merely intercepting drugs to dismantling the networks behind the illicit trade.
He also disclosed that a related operation in Ebonyi State had resulted in arrests, adding that the agency would release more details after completing the necessary procedures.
According to Babafemi, the development highlights the increasingly international nature of Nigeria’s illicit drug trade, with foreign criminal networks seeking to establish production and distribution structures in the country.
He said the NDLEA was strengthening collaboration with law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and abroad, stressing that the scale of transnational drug trafficking required coordinated action.
The agency has also intensified efforts to dismantle trafficking routes as tighter controls at airports, seaports and major highways force criminal networks to explore alternative corridors. Babafemi said some traffickers were now moving narcotics through neighbouring countries before attempting to bring them into Nigeria.
He cited the recent dismantling of a cartel operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor, describing it as a major route used in the distribution of opioids and other illicit substances in the country.
Babafemi said the NDLEA’s strategy now goes beyond arrests and seizures to include intelligence gathering, dismantling criminal structures and targeting the financial networks sustaining the drug trade.
“We’re dismantling all their structures and disabling their capacity and capability, whether in terms of their financial backbone or their instrumentalities,” he said.
He added that the agency was building greater capacity to investigate drug trafficking through digital platforms, including social media, cryptocurrency networks and the dark web.
According to him, intelligence gathered from social media has already contributed to several arrests, while NDLEA officers are undergoing specialised training in financial investigations, asset tracing and recovery of proceeds linked to narcotics trafficking.
The agency has also warned social media influencers against promoting or glamorising illicit drug use, with Babafemi saying it was working with the Actors Guild of Nigeria and other entertainment industry stakeholders to discourage substance abuse.
Babafemi further disclosed that the NDLEA Marine Command had intercepted consignments of cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis on the high seas off Akwa Ibom State. He said the shipment was reportedly destined for Cameroon.
He said the Marine Command had personnel trained in countries including the United Kingdom, United States and Brazil, with the unit responsible for monitoring Nigeria’s waterways and supporting anti-narcotics operations at sea and around ports.
The NDLEA is also expanding its operations to tackle synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and Captagon alongside traditional narcotics including cannabis, cocaine and tramadol.
Babafemi explained that cocaine was largely produced in South America and moved through African trafficking routes towards Europe and other international markets, while the enormous financial returns from narcotics continued to attract organised criminal groups.
He disclosed that the methamphetamine laboratory uncovered in an Ogun forest had the potential to produce drugs estimated to be worth nearly half a trillion naira.
Meanwhile, the NDLEA is implementing an Alternative Development Programme aimed at helping cannabis farmers abandon illicit cultivation and embrace legitimate sources of income.
Babafemi said the pilot programme was launched in three Ondo State communities — Ifon, Ilu-Abo and Eleyewo — where cannabis growers were encouraged to explore alternative livelihoods such as poultry farming and fishing.
He said the initiative was designed to provide sustainable economic opportunities for communities heavily dependent on cannabis cultivation while reducing their exposure to criminal activity and law enforcement operations.
The spokesman said the second phase of the programme had already begun, with early results described as encouraging.
Babafemi also highlighted measures being taken to improve the safety and operational capacity of NDLEA personnel, including specialised training, life and injury insurance, improved protective equipment and operational vehicles.
He disclosed that the agency had acquired additional arms, ammunition and night-vision equipment, while modern AK-47 rifles had been introduced into its armoury to strengthen the protection of officers and facilities against armed criminal groups.
The agency is also developing residential facilities for personnel in strategic locations to protect officers and their families from possible retaliation by drug traffickers.
According to Babafemi, accommodation facilities are already available in Yola, Adamawa State, while projects are ongoing in Lagos, Abuja and Enugu.
He maintained that the NDLEA would continue targeting criminal networks attempting to exploit Nigeria’s forests, waterways, digital platforms and international trafficking corridors.
“We’re winning,” Babafemi said, arguing that intensified operations were helping to reduce the ungoverned spaces previously exploited by drug traffickers.
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