The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs for Africa and the Middle East, Michael Gonzales, gave the warning during a visit to the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.
Gonzales commended the agency for its operational successes, describing the four laboratory busts as evidence of intelligence-led investigations, inter-agency cooperation and effective prosecution.
He said he chose Nigeria as his first destination after assuming office four months ago because of the country’s strategic importance and the NDLEA’s record in combating drug trafficking.
According to him, the crackdown on drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere is forcing traffickers to explore alternative routes through Africa to reach markets in Europe and other regions.
He described the situation as “squeezing a balloon,” explaining that increased pressure on trafficking networks in one region could push them to seek alternative routes elsewhere.
Gonzales also warned that the growing shift from plant-based narcotics to synthetic drugs presented additional challenges because of their difficulty to detect and potentially deadlier effects. He stressed the need for international cooperation to target criminal organisations and their financial networks.
The NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), said recent operations had exposed what he described as a deliberate attempt by Mexican drug cartels to establish Nigeria as a methamphetamine manufacturing hub.
Marwa disclosed that the agency had dismantled what it described as the largest clandestine methamphetamine laboratory ever discovered in Nigeria, located in a forest in Ijebu East, Ogun State.
He said three Mexican methamphetamine experts and their Nigerian collaborators were arrested during the operation, while illicit substances valued at more than $360 million were recovered.
According to him, the agency raided another industrial-scale laboratory in Tapa Village, Oyo State, barely four weeks later, arresting a Mexican methamphetamine expert and four Nigerian collaborators.
He added that similar facilities had been dismantled in Enugu and Ebonyi states, alleging that the operations revealed a coordinated effort to establish production facilities in Nigeria.
Marwa said the cartels were seeking to use West Africa as a corridor for transporting industrial quantities of methamphetamine to Europe, Asia and the United States.
He argued that the agency’s operations were therefore significant to international security, adding that every laboratory dismantled disrupted a potential supply line to overseas drug markets.
The NDLEA chairman also highlighted the impact of US support on the agency’s operations, particularly in forensic and chemical analysis, professional training, investigations, financial-crime detection and equipment maintenance.
He said the partnership had contributed to the arrest of 96,157 drug offenders, including 250 drug barons, the seizure of more than 15.8 million kilogrammes of illicit drugs and the conviction of 16,691 traffickers over the past five years.
Marwa, however, urged Washington to sustain or increase its support, warning that any reduction could create gaps that criminal and terrorist networks might exploit.
He stressed that governments needed to strengthen cross-border cooperation because drug traffickers, arms dealers and terrorist groups continued to operate across national boundaries.
Post a Comment