Nigeria arrests Mexican national after anti-drug agency raids industrial-scale meth laboratory

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities in Nigeria have shut down an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory and arrested a Mexican citizen at Lagos airport, the country's anti-drug agency said on Tuesday.

Agency spokesman Femi Babafemi said Arturo Carrera Loaiza was arrested in connection with the laboratory, located at a construction site in southeast Ebonyi State, while trying to flee the West African country.

"The breakthrough follows months of painstaking investigation into a wider criminal network behind a string of clandestine drug laboratories uncovered in parts of the country this year," Babafemi said.

It is the second time this year that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has shut down a large-scale drugs operation. In May, authorities arrested members of an organized drug syndicate involving Nigerians and Mexicans in the southwestern region of the country.

Among the items recovered in the latest raid were methamphetamine, three empty dehydrators, and hundreds of kilograms of chemical compounds, including acetone, ethanol, chloride salt, and hydrochloric acid.

West and Central Africa have emerged as a hot spot for global trafficking and manufacturing of illicit drugs due to porous borders and corruption in recent years, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.