How Mexican drug cartels have outsourced meth labs to Nigeria

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.

The alleged laboratory was hidden from prying eyes West Africa poses numerous attractive benefits to Mexican syndicates, starting with swathes of forested land which makes well for secluded production sites.

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.