The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has raised the alarm over attempts by international drug cartels to establish footholds in Nigeria, revealing that Mexican-linked criminal networks have been involved in the establishment of industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratories in forests across Ogun and Oyo States.
The Director of Media and Advocacy and spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this on Thursday during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu.
Babafemi said the agency had uncovered attempts by foreign criminal elements to penetrate Nigeria’s illicit drug market, adding that NDLEA operatives were taking the battle to the cartels rather than waiting for drugs to be moved through airports, seaports and highways. He said recent operations had uncovered activities in forests in Ogun and Oyo States, while another operation in the South-East had also led to arrests.
“We’ve seen recently the collaboration between the Nigerian-Mexican cartels trying to have methamphetamine in laboratories in the forests of Ogun and Oyo State and just a few days we had one again in Ebonyi State, and those behind that have been rounded up and we will definitely make that public as soon as all the necessary protocols have been tidied up.”
According to him, the developments demonstrate the increasingly international nature of drug trafficking and the determination of foreign cartels to establish production bases in Nigeria.
“They are trying to come in through whatever means they have to establish footholds, because it’s a global phenomenon, it’s a global challenge, so they are all networked, and that’s why we also, as law enforcement, we also network with our counterparts.”
Babafemi said the NDLEA was also strengthening collaboration with other Nigerian security agencies, stressing that the drug war could not be handled by one organisation alone.
He said the agency’s strategy had shifted towards intelligence sharing and dismantling drug networks at their sources.
“We’re, mopping up all of those floods of illicit substances across our communities and our streets, but beyond that, we’re taking this to them, right wherever they may be trying to do this.”
The NDLEA Spokesman said the agency was targeting the financial backbone of the cartels and their instrumentalities in addition to arresting suspects and seizing drugs.
“We are dismantling all their structures and disabling their capacity and capability, whether in terms of their financial backbone, or their instrumentalities.”
Babafemi said international cartels were also adapting their routes because of increased enforcement at Nigeria’s airports and seaports. He said some traffickers now move illicit substances through neighbouring countries before attempting to bring them into Nigeria.
“These people already know that it’s difficult for them to come into Nigeria through airports or seaports, so we’ve also seen the trend that they would take some of these illicit substances to some neighboring countries from where they want to come into Nigeria, and then we’ve also seen one of the great exploits by the agency recently, dismantling a cartel operating through the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor, which is called a route that has for years fed the crisis of opioid abuse among our youth,” he said.
Babafemi also disclosed that the agency was strengthening its capacity to monitor drug trafficking through cyberspace. He said several arrests had emanated from social media and that the agency was monitoring both open social media platforms and the dark web.
He said the agency was also monitoring cryptocurrency networks and dark-web marketplaces, while personnel were receiving advanced training in financial investigation, asset tracing and recovery of proceeds of narcotics trafficking.
“We are a modern front-line agency. Quite a number of our arrests have emanated from social media, that I can tell you for free, meaning that we have teams monitoring developments, monitoring activities, whether on the open social media or even in the dark web. We have a training organized by the agency, which has to do with an advanced capacity-building program of financial investigation, asset tracing, for future recovery, and management of proceeds and instabilities of narcotics trafficking and related organized crime,” he disclosed.
The NDLEA Spokesman said social media influencers who glamorise drug use were also being targeted.
“We’ve seen deep glorification of the glamorization of illicit substances, especially by social media influencers and that’s why a number of them had also been taken down.”
Babafemi said the agency was working with the Actors Guild of Nigeria and the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria to discourage the promotion of illicit substances.
He said the agency had adopted what he described as a “carrot and the stick approach”, combining enforcement against offenders with engagement aimed at changing the messaging of influencers.
“We have deployed what we call the stick and the carrot approach to address this. For instance, for those that we see out of the line, we deploy the stick approach, we get them and then the other approach is the carrot, trying to get some of these people, work with them as individuals, work with them as groups to ensure that they have a rethink, to let them know the consequences of some of the things they do online, and then to get them to change the narrative of their messaging. I can tell you that one of the groups, apart from engaging with some of these people, especially within the music industry and the Nollywood industry, we have a working relationship with the AGN, that is the Actors Guild of Nigeria. So we have that working relationship with them in that regard.”
Babafemi said the NDLEA recognised the drug trade as a dangerous criminal enterprise, describing the cartels behind the illicit trade as highly organised and capable of causing significant harm to society.
“Drug cartels anywhere in the world are very deadly. In fact, nobody would do that kind of business and would not be deadly because you know what you are doing is not adding any value to human life”
“Instead, we call them merchants of death, meaning that there is nothing good coming out of them in their business from them. So we do appreciate the fact that indeed we are confronting monsters and dangerous criminals.” he said.
The NDLEA spokesman said the agency’s concerns extended beyond cannabis, cocaine and tramadol to synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine and Captagon. He said cocaine was not produced in Nigeria but often travelled from South America through Africa before being moved to Europe and other destinations.
He said methamphetamine had previously been unfamiliar to Nigeria but had become a growing concern following the involvement of foreign criminal networks and its very high price.
“We do know that cocaine is not produced in Nigeria. They come from South America and then come through Africa. Then, from here, they move to Europe. Just like in the recent case you have the consignment of cocaine that were intercepted in Lagos and in London, you can see that came from South America into our country, then they are being distributed back to Europe, to Asia,” he explained.
“Because these drugs have high values in the international market. For instance, a kg of meth or cocaine in some parts of the world sells for as much as $500,000 a kg, a kilogram. That’s why they are usually very desperate about these things.”
Babafemi said the methamphetamine laboratory discovered in the Ogun forest was estimated to have the potential to produce drugs worth almost half a trillion naira.
“So, that’s why you see, what was to come out of the meth lab in the Ogun Forest was almost half a trillion Naira in value,” he added.
According to the NDLEA Spokesman, the agency has also introduced an Alternative Development Programme aimed at persuading cannabis farmers to adopt legitimate livelihoods in three communities in Ondo State.
“There was an official launch of what we call the Alternative Development Program in Nigeria, with the pilot scheme launched in three communities in Ondo state, Ifon, which is somewhere around Owo, then Ilu-Abo that’s somewhere around Akure, as well as Eleyewo also somewhere around Akure, was in those programs.”
Babafemi said the programme had encouraged cannabis growers in the communities to move into poultry, fishing and other sustainable livelihoods. He said the NDLEA was following up on the programme and had recorded what he described as “very tremendous” outcomes.
“The whole essence of that program was to help these areas where predominantly cannabis was being cultivated, and the agency had engagements with the cannabis growers, and then they were persuaded to switch from cannabis growing to alternative crops, cash crops, food crops, something that they wouldn’t have to be running anytime they see a security agent or anytime they see a red jacket, (the NDLEA jacket). As I speak with you, our Alternative Development Project team have been in Ondo State to follow up with the second phase of that project, and the outcomes have been very tremendous”
The agency’s spokesman further said the international nature of drug trafficking meant that the NDLEA would continue to depend on cooperation with law enforcement agencies in other countries.
He also said the agency’s Marine Command was monitoring Nigeria’s waterways following concerns about small boats operating around large vessels.
Babafemi said the Marine Command had personnel trained in the United Kingdom, United States, Brazil and other countries and had made drug seizures at ports and on the high seas.
He said: “We do have a full command, a marine command, that are well trained officers, personnel, all over the world. They’ve been trained in the UK, trained in the US, trained in Brazil, all over the world and these are the same people that have been seizing cocaine in ships, in ports, and even cannabis on the high seas.”
The NDLEA Spokesman also disclosed that cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis had recently been seized on the high seas in Akwa Ibom State. According to him, the consignment was allegedly being taken to Cameroon.
“Just last week, there were consignments of cocaine, meth, and cannabis that were seized on the high sea in Akwa Ibom State. That consignment was being taken to the Republic of Cameroon” he disclosed.
Babafemi said the NDLEA now conducts forensic investigations and works with international partners to trace the movements and financial activities of suspected traffickers.
The agency’s spokesman also disclosed that NDLEA personnel were receiving additional security equipment and training because of the increasingly dangerous nature of drug trafficking operations.
He said personnel now have life and injury insurance and have undergone specialised training, while the agency had acquired arms and ammunition, protective equipment, night-vision equipment and bulletproof operational vehicles.
Babafemi said modern AK-47 rifles had been introduced into the NDLEA armoury for the first time in the agency’s history.
“I also can tell you that all our personnel have been going through a lot of elite training across the world to equip them with the right skills to defend themselves. In addition to that we have procured hundreds of thousands of arms and ammunition that have been added and introduced”
“We call it induction, especially for the first time in the history of the agency, modern AK-47 rifles have been introduced or inducted into the armory of the agency. That’s to further fortify our personnel and our offices against these criminal elements.”
He said the agency was also establishing residential accommodation for personnel in Yola, Lagos, Abuja and Enugu to protect officers and their families from possible retaliation by drug traffickers in communities where operations are conducted.
“For the first time in the history of the agency, we are having barracks in parts of the country, so that our officers can stay in a secure environment with their family without the fear of going back to the midst of the same community where they have gone to arrest drug traffickers or drug dealers”
“Today, I know that we have now residential accommodation in Yola, Adamawa State, and the one in Lagos is coming up. We have in Abuja here. We have in the southeast, that’s Enugu in the southeast, all of them coming up.
The NDLEA spokesman said the agency was determined to prevent criminal organisations from exploiting forests, waterways, digital platforms and international routes as ungoverned spaces for drug production and trafficking.
“We’re winning, as much as they want to continue to push this, we’re ensuring that they don’t have that space, the ungoverned space that they used to enjoy before now, that’s no longer the case.”
