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Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd.), has said the fight against drug trafficking can only be won when drug barons are deprived of the wealth that finances their criminal operations.
Marwa made the submission while delivering a paper titled “Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?” at the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime held at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
The symposium attracted judges, law enforcement leaders, financial intelligence experts and academics from different countries.
According to the NDLEA chairman, arresting and convicting traffickers without confiscating their illicit assets leaves the foundations of organised drug crime intact, as the proceeds can be used to finance new criminal networks.
He likened the situation to cutting a weed at the stem while leaving its roots in the ground, warning that criminal enterprises would continue to thrive if their financial base remained untouched.
Marwa outlined six strategies adopted by the NDLEA to strengthen asset recovery under the NDLEA 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 Hook Hotel, a property linked to a fugitive drug suspect, through non-conviction-based forfeiture, with proceeds amounting to $4.2 million paid into the Federal Government's forfeited assets account at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The NDLEA boss also disclosed that the agency has integrated investigators and prosecutors from the early stages of investigations, a move he said has accelerated the process of obtaining restraint and forfeiture orders.
He revealed that the agency recently secured the freezing of bank accounts containing over $7 million and obtained interim forfeiture orders on assets worth billions of naira, including filling stations, buildings and vehicles linked to a methamphetamine syndicate.
Marwa further highlighted the case involving Nigerian businessman and suspected drug trafficker, Amadi Simon, noting that hotels linked to the suspect were placed under professional asset managers to preserve their commercial value pending the conclusion of legal proceedings.
He said the NDLEA has also embraced unexplained wealth investigations and the interlocutory sale of perishable assets to prevent depreciation before final court judgments.
According to him, these measures have been incorporated into Nigeria's National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030.
While acknowledging challenges such as delays in international legal cooperation and limited forensic accounting capacity, Marwa called for stronger cross-border collaboration and wider acceptance of non-conviction-based asset forfeiture as an effective tool in combating transnational drug trafficking.
