•Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd)
The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd.), has said the fight against drug trafficking must go beyond arrests to include the aggressive pursuit and recovery of proceeds of crime.
Marwa spoke 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 at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
In a statement issued today by the NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, Marwa said the success of the criminal justice system should be measured not only by convictions but also by its ability to make crime unprofitable.
“The effectiveness of the criminal process should not be measured only by the number of convictions secured. It should also be measured by whether crime is made unprofitable,” he said.
He explained that a trafficker who loses his freedom but retains the proceeds of his criminal activities could use the wealth to finance further operations and sustain criminal networks.
“The ultimate objective must therefore be to deny criminals the proceeds of their crime, promptly and lawfully, while preserving the value of the property. Nigeria, through the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, will continue to strengthen this approach,” Marwa said.
Addressing the session chaired by Honourable Judge Wendy Tien, the NDLEA boss likened arresting a trafficker without dismantling his financial assets to “pruning a weed at the stem while leaving its roots undisturbed”.
He warned that illicit wealth could resurface through different individuals, companies or jurisdictions if the financial foundations of criminal enterprises were not dismantled.
Marwa outlined six strategies adopted by the NDLEA to strengthen asset recovery, anchored in 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, as an example of the agency’s asset recovery efforts.
According to him, the property was recovered through non-conviction-based forfeiture 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 case demonstrated that fleeing the country or evading arrest did not necessarily prevent authorities from pursuing and recovering the proceeds of alleged criminal activities.
He also disclosed that NDLEA investigators and prosecutors now work together from the early stages of cases, a measure he said had reduced the time between arrests and the securing of restraint orders.
The NDLEA chairman further revealed that the agency froze bank accounts containing more than $7 million in the previous month and obtained interim forfeiture orders covering multibillion-naira assets.
The assets, he said, included filling stations, multi-storey buildings and exotic vehicles allegedly linked to a fugitive methamphetamine syndicate.
On the landmark case of Nigerian billionaire and suspected drug baron Amadi Simon, arrested in Switzerland through a joint operation involving the NDLEA, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and authorities in Switzerland, Greece and France, Marwa explained that Three hotels linked to the suspect were placed under professional asset managers rather than shut down, to preserve their value as going concerns pending the outcome of the trial.
He further highlighted the Agency’s use of provisions on unexplained wealth and living beyond one’s legitimate means as powerful investigative triggers, as well as the interlocutory sale of perishable and depreciating assets to protect their value ahead of final judgment.
He noted that these efforts have now been institutionalised within Nigeria’s National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030, ensuring that disrupting drug cartels’ finances remains a sustained national priority rather than a series of isolated cases.
Distilling these experiences into three guiding principles — speed over sequence, preservation of value and institutionalisation — Marwa acknowledged that challenges remain, particularly delays in mutual legal assistance, limited forensic accounting capacity, and the need to balance the rights of accused persons with the State’s duty to preserve assets pending trial.
He called for faster international cooperation mechanisms and stronger cross-border recognition of non-conviction-based forfeiture orders.
He thanked the Centre for Geopolitics, the organisers of the Symposium and Judge Tien for the platform, and reaffirmed NDLEA’s readiness to deepen partnerships with jurisdictions and institutions committed to dismantling the financial architecture of drug trafficking.
