Dismantle financial structures of drug cartels, Marwa charges NDLEA investigators
Dismantle financial structures of drug cartels, Marwa charges NDLEA investigators
… As Chief Judge Tsoho commends Marwa, says collaboration between FHC and NDLEA, other law enforcement agencies will put Nigeria in proper spotlight globally
The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), has charged investigators and prosecutors of the Agency to intensify efforts at tracing, seizing and recovering the proceeds and instrumentalities of narcotics trafficking, insisting that the war against drug cartels can no longer be won by arrests and seizures alone.
Marwa gave the charge on Wednesday 2nd September 2026 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.
In his welcome remarks, the NDLEA boss noted that the depth of participation at the programme reflects a shared commitment to the understanding that drug trafficking is fundamentally an economic enterprise, 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 are increasingly exploiting technology, cryptocurrencies, complex corporate structures and legitimate businesses to conceal the ownership and origin of illicit wealth, stressing that the Agency’s response must evolve with equal sophistication. According to him, 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’s next imperative, having made significant progress in seizing narcotics and prosecuting 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. 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 Agency’s 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 possesses all the information, expertise or capacity required to confront sophisticated criminal networks.
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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, a crypto-police specialist, among other resource persons drawn from sister agencies.
He also welcomed the participation of representatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the 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 officers of the Agency to see the programme not as another routine training but as an opportunity to strengthen the NDLEA’s collective capacity, stressing that knowledge gained must not remain within individual Directorates but be shared and translated into coordinated action across the Agency.
