Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), has declared that arresting drug traffickers without dismantling their financial empires cannot end the drug war.

Marwa made the declaration Tuesday while addressing judges, law enforcement chiefs, financial intelligence experts and academics at the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Speaking on “Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?”, the NDLEA boss said the effectiveness of the criminal justice system should be measured not only by convictions but also by whether crime is made financially unprofitable.

He said: “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 the ultimate objective was to deny criminals their proceeds promptly and lawfully while preserving the value of seized property.

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

The NDLEA chairman disclosed that the agency had intensified its asset recovery strategy by embedding investigators and prosecutors together from the inception of cases to accelerate the securing of restraint and forfeiture orders.

According to him, the agency froze bank accounts containing more than $7 million in the last month alone, while securing interim forfeiture orders covering multibillion-naira assets allegedly linked to a fugitive methamphetamine syndicate.

The assets include filling stations, multi-storey buildings and exotic vehicles.

Marwa said the strategy was anchored on the NDLEA Act 2004, Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022 and Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022.

He cited the forfeiture of the Hook Hotel, a property linked to a fugitive drug suspect, which was recovered through non-conviction-based forfeiture and sold for $4.2 million.

The proceeds, he said, were paid into the Federal Government’s forfeited assets account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He also disclosed that three hotels linked to Nigerian billionaire and suspected drug baron Amadi Simon, arrested in Switzerland through a multinational operation, were placed under professional asset managers to preserve their value pending the outcome of trial.

Marwa said the agency was also using unexplained wealth provisions and interlocutory sales of perishable or depreciating assets to prevent criminal property from losing value.

He said the strategy had been institutionalised under Nigeria’s National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030.

However, he identified delays in mutual legal assistance, limited forensic accounting capacity and the need to balance accused persons’ rights with the State’s responsibility to preserve assets as major challenges.

Marwa called for faster international cooperation and stronger cross-border recognition of non-conviction-based forfeiture orders, stressing that dismantling the financial architecture of drug trafficking was essential to making the illicit trade unprofitable.