Nigerian authorities recently arrested Arturo Carrera Loaiza, a 40-year-old man accused of being a Mexican drug kingpin, at Lagos International Airport. The arrest led to the discovery of a suspected large-scale methamphetamine laboratory in Ebonyi state, marking the third such find linked to Mexican nationals in four months. According to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), digital images of Loaiza wearing what officials believe to be a laboratory coat were found alongside equipment consistent with meth production. These images provided location data that led to a property in Ebonyi state, where chemicals and drug-making equipment were reportedly found. NDLEA chairman Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa said investigators found a CCTV memory card at the suspected laboratory in Ebonyi with footage showing someone who looked like Loaiza wearing a blue laboratory coat. A Nigerian man was also identified directing people as they removed chemicals and equipment from the site. Further intelligence led officers to an isolated house in a neighboring community, where they recovered chemicals, dehydrators, condensers, a reaction pot, weighing scales, mixers, drums, gas burners, and a sieve containing traces of methamphetamine. The amount of methamphetamine the alleged laboratory could produce remains unknown. Investigators have alleged that Loaiza had recruited and brought a fellow Mexican to work at another suspected methamphetamine laboratory hidden in a forest in Oyo state, which was raided in June. Four Nigerians were also arrested after that raid. A month earlier, NDLEA officers arrested three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerians at what the agency described as an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory hidden in a forest in another part of the country. Marwa said the operations showed international criminal groups were attempting to establish drug-production facilities in Nigeria's forests and rural communities. "Nigeria will not be allowed to become a haven for transnational drug cartels seeking to relocate their laboratories from other jurisdictions into our forests and rural communities," he said. The NDLEA said its investigation into the network is ongoing, including into those it believes financed or helped facilitate the operations in Nigeria. Unlike plant-based drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, which can only be grown and processed in certain places, synthetic drugs like meth can be produced anywhere with the right chemicals and expertise, making it easier for organized crime groups to quickly scale up production. West Africa poses numerous attractive benefits to Mexican syndicates, starting with large areas of forested land that serve well as secluded production sites.