How Drug Cartels Are Expanding Their Reach Across West Africa | DW News

Why It Matters

The convergence of cartels and terrorist networks threatens regional stability and creates a new funding stream for extremism while sustaining transatlantic drug flows, prompting greater international security and law-enforcement cooperation.

Summary

US Africa Command officials and Nigerian authorities say Latin American drug cartels are increasingly using West Africa as a transit and production hub, linking trafficking networks to terrorist groups. Spanish authorities recently interdicted a 35-ton cocaine shipment believed to have transited West Africa, while Nigeria announced the bust of a huge clandestine meth lab—seizing large quantities of precursors and arresting three Mexican nationals and several local collaborators. Nigerian agencies report coordinated multinational operations and raids on luxury properties in Lagos as part of an intensified crackdown. Analysts warn this points to an expanding ecosystem of cartels, criminal gangs and terror groups operating across the Atlantic corridor.

Original Description

Nigeria's biggest meth lab bust ever is raising new fears about the growing connection between international drug cartels in Latin America and terrorism in West Africa. The US has warned about these links

00:00 Nigeria's biggest meth lab bust

01:25 DW's Felix Chukwemah reports from Lagos

07:38 DW speaks with organized-crime expert Oluwole Ojewale

#Drugs #Meth #Nigeria #dwnews

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