Marwa Targets Assets Of Drug Barons To Cripple Trafficking

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.

He stressed that the financial networks and illicit wealth sustaining criminal enterprises must also be dismantled.

Marwa made the declaration in 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,” Marwa said.

He explained that NDLEA’s strategy was therefore focused on denying drug traffickers the financial resources required to sustain their operations, while ensuring that recovered assets are lawfully preserved and managed.

Marwa likened arresting a drug trafficker without dismantling his financial empire to “pruning a weed at the stem while leaving its roots undisturbed,” warning that illicit wealth could resurface through front companies, associates or different jurisdictions.

The NDLEA chairman further revealed six practical strategies being deployed by the agency to strengthen asset recovery, relying 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 recovery and sale of the Hook Hotel, a property linked to a fugitive drug suspect, as a notable example of the agency’s non-conviction-based forfeiture approach.

According to him, the property was recovered and subsequently sold for $4.2 million, with the proceeds paid into the federal government’s forfeited assets account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Marwa said the development demonstrated that fugitives could not simply evade arrest and continue to enjoy the benefits of their alleged criminal activities.

He also disclosed that NDLEA investigators and prosecutors are now working together from the earliest stages of cases, a reform he said had significantly reduced the time between arrests and the securing of restraint orders.

The NDLEA boss revealed that in July alone, the agency froze bank accounts containing more than $7 million and obtained interim forfeiture orders covering multibillion-naira assets, including filling stations, multi-storey buildings, and exotic vehicles allegedly linked to a fugitive methamphetamine syndicate.