The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), has called for stronger global action to dismantle the financial networks of drug cartels, insisting that arrests alone cannot defeat drug trafficking.
Marwa made the call while delivering a presentation titled, “Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?” at the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
According to an official statement signed by the Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, Marwa told an international audience of judges, law enforcement chiefs, financial intelligence experts and academics that the success of the criminal justice system should be measured not only by convictions but also by its ability to make crime unprofitable.
He said drug traffickers who retain their wealth after arrest or conviction could use their illicit fortunes to finance new operations, support criminal associates and sustain criminal enterprises.
“The ultimate objective must therefore be to deny criminals the proceeds of their crime, promptly, and lawfully while preserving the value of the property,” Marwa said.
The NDLEA boss said Nigeria was strengthening its asset recovery strategy through 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, through non-conviction-based forfeiture as an example of the agency’s approach. The property was 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 also disclosed that NDLEA investigators and prosecutors are now embedded together from the outset of cases to accelerate the process of securing restraint orders over suspected criminal assets.
According to him, the agency froze bank accounts worth more than $7 million in the preceding month and secured interim forfeiture orders covering multibillion-naira assets, including filling stations, multi-storey buildings and exotic vehicles allegedly linked to a fugitive methamphetamine syndicate.
He further highlighted the NDLEA’s handling of three hotels linked to 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 the hotels were placed under professional asset managers rather than shut down, in order to preserve their value as going concerns pending the outcome of the trial.
He identified the use of unexplained wealth and living beyond legitimate means as investigative triggers, while also pointing to the interlocutory sale of perishable and depreciating assets as a means of preventing their value from being lost before final judgment.
The NDLEA chairman said the financial disruption of drug cartels had been institutionalised under Nigeria’s National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030, ensuring that asset recovery remained a sustained national priority.
He outlined three principles guiding the agency’s approach: speed over sequence, preservation of value and institutionalisation.
However, Marwa identified delays in mutual legal assistance, limited forensic accounting capacity and the need to balance the rights of accused persons with the state’s responsibility to preserve assets pending trial as continuing challenges.
He therefore called for faster international cooperation mechanisms and stronger cross-border recognition of non-conviction-based forfeiture orders.
Marwa reaffirmed the NDLEA’s readiness to deepen partnerships with international jurisdictions and institutions committed to dismantling the financial architecture of drug trafficking, stressing that depriving criminal networks of their wealth was essential to weakening their capacity to operate.
