The U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) for Africa and the Middle East, Michael Gonzales, has described Nigeria as the obvious first country to visit since assuming office, commending the NDLEA for its operational successes. Speaking Tuesday, October 20, 2026, during a visit to NDLEA National Headquarters in Abuja where he was received by Chairman/Chief Executive Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), Gonzales said Nigeria’s leadership role, economic weight, and NDLEA’s track record plus its robust partnership with INL informed his decision. He cited four methamphetamine laboratory busts this year as evidence of best-practice tradecraft.
Gonzales warned that intensified U.S. pressure on cartels in the Western Hemisphere was having a balloon effect, pushing trafficking toward Africa and onward to Europe and Oceania, alongside a shift from plant-based to deadlier synthetics. He said narcotics remains one of the most tangible foreign policy issues affecting American families and stressed that INL-NDLEA cooperation “fundamentally delivers for the Nigerian people, for the American people,” calling for sustained action against transnational networks, including illicit financial flows.
Marwa described the partnership, reinforced by the DEA, as a shared investment in collective security, noting convergence of drug money, arms and terrorism. He disclosed NDLEA recently dismantled Nigeria’s largest clandestine meth lab in Ijebu East, Ogun State, arresting three Mexican experts and recovering over $360m worth of drugs, plus similar industrial-scale labs in Oyo, Enugu and Ebonyi linked to Mexican cartels seeking a West African corridor to Europe, Asia and U.S. cities. He said INL support underpins forensic, investigative and training capabilities and has fueled 96,157 arrests including 250 barons, 15.8m kg seizures and 16,691 convictions in five years, urging Washington to maintain if not increase support.
