The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd.), has directed the agency’s investigators and prosecutors to intensify efforts to trace, seize and recover the proceeds and instrumentalities of narcotics trafficking, declaring that arrests and drug seizures alone are no longer sufficient to defeat sophisticated drug cartels.
Marwa gave the directive on Wednesday in Abuja while declaring open an Advanced Capacity Building Programme on Financial Investigations, Asset Tracing, Forfeiture, Recovery and Management of the Proceeds and Instrumentalities of Narcotics Trafficking and Related Organised Crime.
The NDLEA chairman said drug trafficking is fundamentally an economic enterprise sustained by financiers, facilitators, money launderers and other professional enablers who operate behind the movement of illicit drugs.
He therefore charged the agency to move beyond intercepting narcotics and arresting couriers to dismantling the financial networks that enable and sustain organised drug trafficking.
“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 are increasingly deploying technology, cryptocurrencies, complex corporate structures and legitimate businesses to conceal the ownership, movement and origin of illicit wealth.
Marwa consequently urged NDLEA investigators and prosecutors to strengthen their capacity to analyse complex financial transactions, trace assets across jurisdictions, establish beneficial ownership, exploit digital evidence and build robust financial cases capable of securing forfeiture and recovery.
According to him, having recorded significant progress in drug seizures and the prosecution of traffickers, the agency’s next priority must be to dismantle the economic foundations of the illicit 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.
The NDLEA chairman further observed that the drug trafficking ecosystem is closely linked to money laundering, corruption, cybercrime, human trafficking, illicit arms trafficking and other forms of organised crime.
He stressed the need for stronger collaboration among the agency’s intelligence, investigation, prosecution, forensic, asset and financial investigation directorates, describing them as interconnected components of a single enforcement chain.
Marwa also emphasised the importance of inter-agency cooperation, noting that no single institution possesses all the information, expertise and operational capacity required to dismantle increasingly sophisticated criminal networks.
He commended the calibre of experts participating in the training, including retired Southwark Crown Court Circuit Judge in the United Kingdom, Hon. Justice Michael Hopmeier; former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN; Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN; Global MLCFT Adviser, Calvin Wilson; Head of European Operations at Asset Reality, Jason Sandoval; and Nick Francis.
Other resource persons include cryptocurrency expert and Special Assistant to the President on Justice Sector Reform, Fernandez Marcus-Obiene, and crypto-police specialist, Chioma Chikelu, alongside experts from sister agencies.
Representatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), ICPC and Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), as well as judges of the Federal High Court, also participated in the programme.
Marwa said their involvement would help strengthen the crucial link between investigation, prosecution and adjudication in financial crime and asset recovery cases.
He, however, warned that asset recovery does not end with seizure or forfeiture, stressing that poor management, weak accountability and lack of transparency could erode the value of recovered assets and undermine public confidence in the process.
He therefore called for strict accountability and transparency from the point of seizure through forfeiture, management and eventual realisation of recovered assets.
The NDLEA boss urged participants to regard the programme as more than a routine training, but as an opportunity to build the agency’s collective capacity to follow the money, identify illicit assets, strengthen evidence, secure forfeiture and preserve the value of recovered property.
He expressed confidence that the knowledge gained would be shared across directorates and translated into coordinated enforcement operations capable of depriving drug traffickers and organised criminal networks of the financial resources sustaining their activities.
In a goodwill message delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, commended the strides recorded by the NDLEA under Marwa’s leadership and expressed support for stronger collaboration between the judiciary and law enforcement agencies.
Tsoho described the training as timely, noting that its theme reflected the increasingly extensive and multifaceted nature of drug-related crimes, including emerging threats such as cryptocurrency-enabled money laundering.
He said effective and sophisticated law enforcement strategies were required to confront the evolving nature of organised crime, expressing confidence that deeper collaboration between the Federal High Court, NDLEA and other law enforcement agencies would strengthen Nigeria’s standing in the international fight against organised crime and illicit financial flows.
