Nigeria’s anti-drug agency said it had dismantled a methamphetamine syndicate in the largest seizure of ​its kind in the country, seizing drugs and chemicals ‌worth about $363 million and arresting 10 suspects, including three Mexicans.

%The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said late on Wednesday that coordinated raids on ​a farm in Ogun state and linked properties ​in Lagos state, southwest Nigeria, uncovered an industrial-scale clandestine ⁠laboratory and yielded 2.4 tons of methamphetamine and chemical materials.

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) ​Chief Mohamed Buba Marwa said the operation, carried out over ​48 hours after months of intelligence work, exposed a network importing foreign “technical expertise” to produce drugs locally.

Seven suspects, including three Mexicans described as ​meth “cooks”, were arrested at the farm used as a lab ​in Ogun state’s Abidagba forest, while the alleged mastermind, Anochili Innocent, a ‌Nigerian, ⁠was detained at his Lagos residence.

Follow-up operations brought total arrests to 10, the agency said.

The agency said the scale of the haul, equivalent to millions of street doses, highlighted ​a shift by ​drug cartels ⁠towards setting up production bases in Nigeria.

The crackdown underscores Nigeria’s growing role as both a ​transit and manufacturing hub in the global illegal ​drugs ⁠trade.

Illegal trade has been growing in Nigeria and West Africa, where porous borders allow cartels to expand logistics networks and links ⁠to ​Latin American trafficking groups.

Marwa said the agency ​will step up its crackdown on local and transnational networks across the ​country.

–Reuters–