The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd.), has directed the agency’s investigators and prosecutors to intensify efforts to trace, seize and recover the proceeds and assets of drug traffickers.
Key Highlights
- NDLEA orders tougher action against drug traffickers’ financial networks.
- Marwa directs investigators to trace and recover illicit assets.
- Agency targets financiers, money launderers and criminal enablers.
- Drug cartels increasingly use cryptocurrency and complex businesses.
- NDLEA seeks stronger capacity in financial investigations and asset tracing.
Marwa said the war against drug cartels could no longer be won through arrests and drug seizures alone, stressing the need to dismantle the financial structures sustaining organised narcotics trafficking.
He spoke on Wednesday in Abuja, while declaring open an advanced capacity building programme on financial investigations, asset tracing, forfeiture, recovery and management of proceeds and instrumentalities of narcotics trafficking and related organised crime.
The NDLEA boss said drug trafficking is fundamentally an economic enterprise sustained by financiers, facilitators, money launderers and other professional enablers operating behind drug shipments.
“If we arrest the courier but leave the financier untouched, seize the drugs but allow the proceeds to remain with the criminal enterprise, or secure a conviction without recovering the illicit wealth, we have addressed only part of the problem,” Marwa said.
He noted that criminal organisations were increasingly using technology, cryptocurrencies, complex corporate structures and legitimate businesses to conceal the ownership and origins of illicit wealth.
Marwa therefore charged NDLEA investigators and prosecutors to develop the capacity to analyse complex financial transactions, trace assets across borders, establish beneficial ownership, exploit digital evidence and build financial cases capable of securing forfeiture and recovery.
He said the agency’s next priority, following its progress in narcotics seizures and prosecution of traffickers, is to dismantle the economic foundations of the drug trade and make narcotics trafficking a high-risk, low-profit enterprise.
“The sophistication of organised crime demands a corresponding sophistication in our response. We must move from crime detection to crime disruption; from arresting offenders to dismantling criminal enterprises; and from confiscating drugs to depriving traffickers of the wealth that motivates and sustains their activities,” he said.
Marwa added that the drug trafficking ecosystem is linked to money laundering, corruption, cybercrime, human trafficking, illicit arms trafficking and other forms of organised crime.
He consequently called for stronger cooperation among the NDLEA’s intelligence, investigation, prosecution, forensic, asset and financial investigation directorates, saying the units must operate as interconnected parts of a single enforcement chain.
The NDLEA chairman also called for greater inter-agency collaboration, noting that no single institution possessed all the information, expertise and capacity required to confront sophisticated criminal networks.
He also warned that asset recovery should not end with seizure or forfeiture, stressing that poor management and lack of transparency could reduce the value of recovered assets and undermine public confidence.
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The NDLEA boss urged participants to ensure accountability and transparency from the point of seizure through forfeiture, management and eventual realisation of recovered assets.
Meanwhile, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, commended Marwa for the strides recorded by the NDLEA under his leadership.
Justice Tsoho, whose goodwill message was delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, said stronger collaboration between the Federal High Court, NDLEA and other law enforcement agencies would enhance Nigeria’s position in the international community.
He described the training as important in strengthening institutional capacity in financial investigation, asset tracing, recovery and management of proceeds and instrumentalities of narcotics trafficking and related crimes, including cryptocurrency-enabled money laundering.
The chief judge said the expanding and multifaceted nature of drug crimes required effective and sophisticated law enforcement responses.
He expressed confidence that closer cooperation between the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, particularly the NDLEA, would strengthen Nigeria’s efforts against organised crime and improve its reputation internationally.
