How Mexican drug cartels have outsourced meth labs to Nigeria

Anti-narcotics officers inspect the site of a suspected illegal drug laboratory in a dense forested area of western Nigeria

The Nigerian judge was formally dressed, the lawyers maintained legal decorum and protocol was followed – but this hearing was not in the comfortable confines of a Lagos courtroom, it was inside an alleged illicit drug laboratory in the thick of a dense forest.

Three Mexicans and seven Nigerians were paraded in handcuffs, as Justice Musa Kakaki inspected the chemicals and equipment they were accused of using to produce the harmful illegal synthetic drug, methamphetamine, commonly known as meth, crystal meth or, locally, ice.

A bitter, pungent smell filled the air of the makeshift laboratory, thanks to a large drum of the liquid form of the drug that was crystallising. Another potent odour came from open vats of a dark, viscous liquid, described as "crude", or unprocessed, methamphetamine.

Other products were scattered around, including propane gas cylinders and bags of caustic soda, in the unfinished building.

This temporary move of the federal high court to a location a two-hour drive from Lagos was an unusual step for Nigeria's judicial system, but the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it was necessary to understand the scale of the operation.

When the suspects were arrested in May, the agency described it as the country's largest-ever meth bust. It said it discovered more than two tonnes of the drug worth some $360m (£270m).

The NDLEA at the time announced it had "dealt another crippling blow" and dismantled "a highly sophisticated, multi-million-dollar Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine production syndicate".

There were signs that the methamphetamine production process had been disturbed

The following month, agents found another meth laboratory hidden in a forest in neighbouring Oyo State.

That time they arrested five suspects, including one Mexican "methamphetamine expert".

The raids underline a broader trend of Africa's, and particularly West Africa's, growing role in the global synthetic drugs ⁠trade and the shift by criminal cartels to use the continent, not just as a trafficking hub, but also as a production base.

Mexican specialists in manufacturing methamphetamine, often described as "cooks", are increasingly being found working alongside locals in laboratories in Europe and Africa, according to law-enforcement agencies.

Meth production has become increasingly sophisticated over the last few decades.

"They perfected it, to the point now it is the highest purity, the highest potency version of m