Chairman/CEO of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), has charged investigators and prosecutors of the agency to destroy financial structures linked to drug cartels.
He called on them to intensify efforts at tracing, seizing and recovering the proceeds and instrumentality of narcotics trafficking, insisting that the war against drug cartels can no longer be won by arrests and seizures alone.
Marwa gave the charge 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, organised by the agency in Abuja, on Wednesday.
Marwa and his charge to NDLEA investigators, prosecutors
The NDLEA boss noted in his welcome remarks that the depth of participation at the programme reflected a shared commitment to the understanding that drug trafficking was fundamentally an economic enterprise.
He added that the enterprise has been sustained by financiers, facilitators, money launderers and professional enablers operating behind every drug shipment.
“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,” he stated.
He observed that criminal organisations were increasingly exploiting technology, cryptocurrencies, complex corporate structures and legitimate businesses to conceal the ownership and origin of illicit wealth.
This was as he stressed that the agency’s response must evolve with equal sophistication.
He said NDLEA investigators and prosecutors must be equipped to analyse complex transactions, trace assets across borders, establish beneficial ownership, exploit digital evidence and build financial cases capable of supporting forfeiture and recovery.
Marwa disclosed that the NDLEA next imperative, having made significant progress in seizing narcotics and prosecuting traffickers, was to dismantle the economic foundations of 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.
“The drug trafficking ecosystem intersects with money laundering, corruption, cybercrime, human trafficking, illicit arms trafficking and other forms of organised crime.
“These intersections make sustained cooperation, within the NDLEA and among our partner institutions, not merely desirable, but indispensable,” he stated.
He called for stronger synergy among the NDLEA directorates: intelligence, investigation, prosecution, forensics, asset and financial investigation, describing them as interconnected links in one enforcement chain that must work as one agency rather than in isolation.
He extended the same call to inter-agency collaboration, noting that no single institution possessed all the information, expertise or capacity required to confront sophisticated criminal networks.
The NDLEA chairman commended the calibre of resource persons at the programme, including Hon. Judge Michael Hopmeier (recently retired Circuit Judge at Southwark Crown Court, UK);
Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN (former Chairman of the ICPC); Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN (Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation); Calvin Wilson, (Global MLCFT Advisor);
Jason Sandoval (Head of European Operations at Asset Reality), and his colleague, Nick Francis; Fernandez Marcus-Obiene (cryptocurrency expert and Special Assistant to the President on Justice Sector Reform); and Chioma Chikelu (crypto-police specialist), among other resource persons drawn from sister agencies.
He also welcomed representatives of the EFCC, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), as well as judges of the Federal High Court, describing their presence as strengthening the link between investigation, prosecution and adjudication.
Marwa reminded participants that asset recovery does not end with seizure or forfeiture, warning that poor management and lack of transparency can diminish the value of recovered assets and undermine public confidence in the recovery process.
He urged that accountability and transparency be preserved from the point of seizure through forfeiture, management and eventual realisation of assets.
He charged NDLEA officers to see the programme not as another routine training but as an opportunity to strengthen the agency’s collective capacity.
He also stressed that knowledge gained must not remain within individual directorates but be shared and translated into coordinated action across the agency.
He expressed confidence that at the end of the programme, participants would be better equipped to follow the money, identify assets, strengthen evidence, secure forfeiture, preserve recovered value.
He added that the knowledge so gained would ultimately deprive narcotics traffickers and organised criminal networks of the proceeds that fuel their operations.
The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice John Terhemba Tsohon, in his goodwill message delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, commended Marwa for the great strides the agency has been recording under his leadership.
He added that collaboration between the Federal High Court and the NDLEA as well as other law enforcement agencies will put Nigeria in good spotlight in the international community.
Justice Ekwo stated: “His Lordship, the Chief Judge, expresses his delights to be part of this programme which is designed to strengthen institutional capacity in financial investigation, asset tracing for future recovery, and management of proceeds and instrumentalities of narcotic trafficking and related crimes, including cyber-currency-enabled money laundering.
“He is of the opinion that this topic shows how extensive and multifaceted drug crimes are and can be, and their ever-expanding frontiers, which ought to be tackled by effective and sophisticated law enforcement.
“His Lordship appreciates and commends you, the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, for your commendable strides since the assumption of office as the Chairman and Chief Executive.
“His Lordship believes that collaboration between the Federal High Court and law enforcement agencies, especially the NDLEA, will put this nation on a proper spotlight when it comes to law enforcement in the international circle.”
