The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), has declared that the fight against drug trafficking cannot be won through arrests and convictions alone, stressing the need to dismantle the financial empires of drug barons.
Marwa made the declaration while addressing an international gathering of judges, law enforcement chiefs, financial intelligence experts and academics at the ongoing 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Speaking on the topic, “Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?”, the NDLEA chairman said criminals must be denied the proceeds of their illicit activities if the war against drug trafficking is to achieve lasting success.
According to him, the effectiveness of the criminal justice system should not be measured only by the number of convictions secured, but also by its ability to make crime unprofitable.
“A trafficker who loses his liberty but retains his fortune has not truly been defeated. His wealth can finance another operation, support his associates and sustain the criminal enterprise,” Marwa said.
He explained that Nigeria, through the NDLEA, had strengthened its asset recovery strategy by deploying legal and institutional mechanisms to identify, restrain, preserve and ultimately recover proceeds of drug-related crimes.
Marwa outlined six practical strategies being deployed by the agency, anchored on the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act 2004, the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022 and the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022.
He cited the forfeiture of the Hook Hotel, a property linked to a fugitive drug suspect, which was recovered through non-conviction-based forfeiture and sold for $4.2 million.
The proceeds, he said, were paid into the Federal Government’s forfeited assets account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria, demonstrating that fleeing the country could not enable a suspect to retain the benefits of criminal activities.
The NDLEA boss also disclosed that investigators and prosecutors are now embedded together from the commencement of cases, a reform he said had reduced the time between arrests and the securing of restraint orders.
According to him, the agency froze bank accounts worth more than $7 million in the previous month alone and secured interim forfeiture orders covering multibillion-naira assets, including filling stations, multi-storey buildings and exotic vehicles linked to a fugitive methamphetamine syndicate.
On the case involving Nigerian billionaire and suspected drug baron Amadi Simon, who was arrested in Switzerland through a joint operation involving the NDLEA, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and authorities in Switzerland, Greece and France, Marwa said three hotels linked to the suspect were placed under professional asset managers.
He explained that the measure was adopted to preserve the hotels as going concerns rather than allowing their value to deteriorate while the case proceeds.
Marwa further highlighted the use of unexplained wealth and living beyond legitimate means as investigative triggers, as well as the interlocutory sale of perishable and depreciating assets to preserve their value pending final judgment.
He said the measures had now been institutionalised under Nigeria’s National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030, ensuring that financial disruption of drug cartels remained a sustained national priority.
The NDLEA chairman distilled the agency’s experience into three guiding principles: speed over sequence, preservation of value and institutionalisation.
He, however, acknowledged challenges including delays in mutual legal assistance, limited forensic accounting capacity and the need to balance the rights of accused persons with the responsibility of the State to preserve assets pending trial.
Marwa consequently called for faster international cooperation mechanisms and stronger cross-border recognition of non-conviction-based forfeiture orders.
He reaffirmed the NDLEA’s readiness to deepen partnerships with countries and institutions committed to dismantling the financial architecture that sustains international drug trafficking.
The 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime brought together global experts to examine emerging challenges in economic crime, financial investigations, asset recovery and the effectiveness of criminal justice systems.
