US Links Terrorism Funding in Nigeria to Transnational Drug Cartels

Mexican Cartels Setting Up Drug Labs in Africa — AFRICOM

The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) says terrorist groups across West Africa and the Sahel are increasingly bankrolled by transnational drug cartels, with Mexican syndicates now setting up industrial-scale methamphetamine production labs on the continent.

AFRICOM Commander Gen. Dagvin Anderson laid out the picture in testimony before the US House Armed Services Committee this week. He said cocaine trafficking across the Atlantic has jumped nearly sixfold since 2024, with West Africa serving as the main transit corridor between Latin American producers and European markets.

“Both the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel have established methamphetamine production labs in Africa,” Anderson told lawmakers. “Mexican cartel members were arrested during raids in several African countries at some of the largest labs ever discovered.”

The testimony landed the same week the NDLEA announced it had dismantled a transnational meth super-lab in Ogun State’s Abidagba forest, arresting three Mexican nationals and seizing drugs and chemicals worth over N480 billion. NDLEA Chairman Buba Marwa described it as one of the largest drug busts in the agency’s history.

$1bn Cocaine Seizure

Anderson revealed that a recent operation intercepted 35 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of $1 billion — the highest interdiction on record — and said the proceeds from such shipments were directly funding insurgent groups.

He named ISIS-West Africa Province, ISIS-Sahel, and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) as groups exploiting the same trafficking routes used by transnational criminal organisations. “This convergence turns a fragile security landscape into a pressure cooker,” he said.

The AFRICOM commander also flagged the growing influence of Russia, China, and Iran on the continent, and noted that West Africa accounted for 51% of global terrorism deaths in 2024.

Sources: ThisDay, Arise News, VON