The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) has warned that terrorist groups operating across Nigeria and other parts of Africa are increasingly funding their activities through drug trafficking networks, as Nigerian authorities dismantled a massive methamphetamine syndicate valued at over N480 billion.
Speaking before the United States House Armed Services Committee, AFRICOM Commander, Gen. Dagvin Anderson, said extremist organisations in West Africa and the Sahel were deepening ties with international narcotics cartels to finance insurgency operations and expand their influence across the continent.
According to Anderson, terrorist groups such as ISIS-West Africa Province, ISIS-Sahel and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) are exploiting illicit trafficking routes, weak border controls and ungoverned territories to sustain their activities.
He disclosed that cocaine trafficking across the Atlantic had increased nearly sixfold since 2024, with West Africa emerging as a critical transit hub for narcotics moving from Latin America to Europe.
The AFRICOM commander also revealed that authorities recently intercepted 35 tonnes of cocaine valued at approximately $1 billion in the African sub-region, describing it as the largest seizure ever recorded in the region.
Anderson warned that proceeds from the drug trade were being channelled into the purchase of weapons, recruitment of fighters and expansion of terrorist operations across several African countries.
“The convergence of terrorism and narco-trafficking further exacerbates these threats,” he told lawmakers, stressing that Mexican and South American drug cartels were increasingly establishing methamphetamine production laboratories in Africa.
The warning coincided with a major operation by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, which announced the dismantling of a Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine syndicate operating from a hidden laboratory in Ogun State.
Chairman of the agency, Buba Marwa, said operatives arrested 10 suspects, including three Mexican nationals allegedly brought into Nigeria to provide technical expertise for meth production.
The suspects were identified as Martinez Felix Nemecto, Jesus López Valles and Torrero Juan Carlos, alongside several Nigerian accomplices.
Marwa disclosed that the cartel operated an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory concealed within Abidagba forest in Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State, while also maintaining operational bases in Lagos.
He said intelligence-led operations carried out within 48 hours led to the seizure of 2,419.48 kilogrammes of methamphetamine and precursor chemicals estimated to be worth more than N480 billion on the international market.
According to the NDLEA boss, the operation exposed growing attempts by foreign drug cartels to establish narcotics production centres in remote Nigerian communities.
He warned that Nigeria would not become a safe haven for transnational drug syndicates and vowed that the agency would continue to dismantle criminal networks operating across the country.
The development comes amid increasing counter-terrorism cooperation between Nigeria and the United States targeting ISIS-linked groups operating in the North-East and North-West regions of the country.
