The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is shifting greater attention to the financial networks behind narcotics trafficking, with its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), directing investigators and prosecutors to intensify efforts to trace, seize and recover the proceeds of drug-related crimes.
Marwa said arrests of traffickers and seizures of narcotics, while important, would not be sufficient to defeat sophisticated drug cartels without attacking the financial structures that sustain their operations.
According to an official statement signed by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Marwa stated this on Wednesday, September 2, 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 in Abuja.
The NDLEA chairman said drug trafficking should be understood fundamentally as an economic enterprise, sustained by financiers, facilitators, money launderers and professional enablers operating behind individual drug shipments.
He warned that allowing the financiers and proceeds of the illicit trade to remain untouched would leave a significant part of the criminal enterprise intact.
“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,” Marwa said.
He said criminal organisations were increasingly deploying technology, cryptocurrencies, complex corporate structures and legitimate businesses to disguise the ownership and origin of illicit wealth, requiring law enforcement agencies to adopt equally sophisticated methods.
According to him, NDLEA investigators and prosecutors must be able to analyse complex transactions, trace assets across borders, establish beneficial ownership, exploit digital evidence and develop financial cases capable of securing forfeiture and recovery.
Marwa said the Agency’s next priority, following significant progress in narcotics seizures and the prosecution of traffickers, was 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,” he stated.
He noted that the drug trafficking ecosystem was closely connected to other forms of organised crime, including money laundering, corruption, cybercrime, human trafficking and illicit arms trafficking.
Marwa consequently called for stronger cooperation among the NDLEA’s intelligence, investigation, prosecution, forensics, asset and financial investigation directorates, describing them as interconnected components of a single enforcement chain.
He also stressed the importance of inter-agency collaboration, saying no single institution possesses all the information, expertise and capacity required to dismantle sophisticated criminal networks.
The programme brought together representatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and judges of the Federal High Court, alongside local and international experts in financial investigation, asset recovery and cryptocurrency-related crimes.
Marwa said their participation would strengthen the connection between investigation, prosecution and adjudication and enhance the country’s capacity to pursue the financial dimension of organised crime.
He also warned that asset recovery must not end at seizure or forfeiture, noting that poor management and lack of transparency could reduce the value of recovered assets and weaken public confidence in the recovery process.
He therefore urged officers to maintain accountability and transparency throughout the process, from seizure and forfeiture to the management and eventual realisation of recovered assets.
The NDLEA boss charged participants to treat the programme as an opportunity to build institutional capacity rather than merely another routine training exercise.
He said the knowledge acquired must be shared across the Agency and translated into coordinated action capable of identifying hidden assets, strengthening evidence, securing forfeiture and depriving drug traffickers of the wealth financing their operations.
Meanwhile, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, commended Marwa for the strides recorded by the NDLEA under his leadership.
In a goodwill message delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, the Chief Judge said collaboration between the Federal High Court, NDLEA and other law enforcement agencies would strengthen Nigeria’s response to organised crime and improve the country’s standing in the international community.
Justice Tsoho described the focus on financial investigations, asset tracing and cryptocurrency-enabled money laundering as evidence of the increasingly complex nature of drug-related crimes.
He said the expanding frontiers of organised crime required effective and sophisticated law enforcement responses, while expressing support for closer institutional collaboration between the judiciary and agencies involved in combating narcotics trafficking and related offences.
