In a development that sounds like the plot of a very special episode of Narcos, Nigerian authorities have arrested an alleged Mexican drug kingpin who was trying to leave the country. Arturo Carrera Loaiza, 40, was detained at Lagos international airport last month, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) revealed, presumably after they finished processing the paperwork and checking if anyone had left the stove on at the suspected industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory his arrest allegedly uncovered.

That laboratory, the third such find allegedly linked to Mexicans in four months, was discovered after officials found digital images on Loaiza of him wearing what they believed to be a lab coat, standing next to equipment consistent with meth production. Because nothing says "I'm definitely here for the restaurant business" like a photo shoot in a hazmat suit.

The pictures' location data led officers to a property in Ebonyi state, where they said chemicals and drug-making equipment were found. Loaiza has denied involvement in methamphetamine production, claiming he had been invited to Nigeria by a local contact for a restaurant business venture, according to a statement from the NDLEA. One assumes the restaurant's signature dish was not going to be blue crystal.

Investigators found a CCTV memory card at the suspected laboratory in Ebonyi with footage from the property showing someone who looked like Loaiza wearing a blue laboratory coat. A Nigerian man was also identified directing people as they removed chemicals and equipment from the site. Because if you're going to run an international drug operation, you might as well have a project manager.

NDLEA chairman Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa said further intelligence led officers to an isolated house in a neighbouring community, where they recovered chemicals, dehydrators, condensers, a reaction pot, weighing scales, mixers, drums, gas burners and a sieve containing traces of methamphetamine. No estimate has yet been given for how much methamphetamine the alleged laboratory was capable of producing, but one assumes it was enough to make Walter White jealous.

Investigators have alleged that Loaiza had recruited and brought a fellow Mexican to work at another suspected methamphetamine laboratory hidden in a forest in Oyo state, which was raided in June. Four Nigerians were also arrested after the raid. A month earlier, NDLEA officers arrested three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerians at what the agency described as an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory hidden in a forest in another part of the country. At this point, Nigeria's forests are apparently the new hotspot for artisanal meth, which is not the tourism slogan anyone asked for.

Marwa said the operations showed international criminal groups were attempting to establish drug-production facilities in Nigeria's forests and rural communities. "Nigeria will not be allowed to become a haven for transnational drug cartels seeking to relocate their laboratories from other jurisdictions into our forests and rural communities," he said, in a statement that is both reassuring and slightly terrifying in its specificity.

The NDLEA said its investigation into the network is ongoing, including into those it believes financed or helped facilitate the operations in Nigeria. Unlike plant-based drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, which can only be grown and processed in certain places, a synthetic drug like meth can be produced anywhere with the right chemicals and expertise, making it easier for organised crime groups to quickly scale up production. West Africa poses numerous attractive benefits to Mexican syndicates, starting with swathes of forested land which serves well for secluded production sites. So, if you're in the market for a secluded meth lab, Nigeria apparently has some real estate opportunities.