Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have uncovered and shut down an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory hidden deep within a forest in Tapa Village, Ibarapa North Local Government Area, Oyo State arresting a Mexican cartel specialist and four Nigerian collaborators in the process.
The raid, carried out on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, comes less than a month after the agency dismantled a similar facility in Ijebu East, Ogun State, raising fresh concerns about a calculated push by transnational drug syndicates to establish a synthetic drug manufacturing corridor across Nigeria’s Southwest region.
NDLEA Chairman, retired Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa, disclosed the development at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, June 24, represented by Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
“This was not a rudimentary setup; it was a sophisticated, highly organised transnational syndicate,” Marwa said.
Among those arrested was 56-year-old Jose Villa Ochoa, a Mexican methamphetamine expert allegedly recruited specifically to oversee large-scale drug synthesis. Four Nigerians were also apprehended: Maxwell Uche Nevoh, 30; Olatunji Yusuf, 37; Bankole Akeem Owolabi, 45; and Ganiu Monsiu, 43 — said to have provided logistical support and local cover for the operation.
A forensic team from the agency’s Directorate of Forensic and Chemical Monitoring moved into the site on June 18 and documented what officials described as a factory-level production line. Recovered materials included Phenyl-2-propanone (P2P) and Phenylacetic acid — both tightly controlled precursor chemicals central to methamphetamine production — alongside 1,800-litre drums, industrial reactors, distillation units, fabricated mixers, and vegetable dehydrators used for crystal drying. Field tests on samples of finished crystals returned a confirmed positive for methamphetamine.
Marwa warned that the back-to-back discoveries in Oyo and Ogun states signal a deliberate strategy by drug barons to exploit the region’s dense forests as cover for illicit manufacturing.
“They thought hiding in dense forests would shield them from the long arm of the law. They were wrong,” he said, adding a direct warning to all drug networks operating within Nigeria’s borders: “We will find you in the cities, we will track you into the forests, and we will dismantle your infrastructure of death.”
All recovered substances and equipment have been documented and preserved as evidence for prosecution.
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