Asset Recovery Key To Crippling Drug Trafficking – NDLEA Chairman Marwa

The chairman/chief executive officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (rtd), has declared that the fight against drug trafficking cannot be won through arrests and convictions alone, stressing that the financial networks and illicit wealth sustaining criminal enterprises must also be dismantled.

Marwa made the declaration while delivering a presentation titled: “Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?” at the ongoing 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

The symposium brought together judges, law enforcement chiefs, financial intelligence experts and academics from different jurisdictions.

According to Marwa, “The true measure of success in the criminal justice system should go beyond the number of arrests and convictions secured to whether criminals are effectively deprived of the proceeds of their crimes.

“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.”