Marwa Urges Increased Efforts Against Financiers, Enablers of Nigeria’s Drug Trade

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mr Mohamed Marwa, has charged investigators and prosecutors in the agency to intensify efforts at tracing, seizing, and recovering the proceeds and instrumentalities of narcotics trafficking.

Mr Marwa gave the charge on Wednesday, 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, held in Abuja, noting that arrests and seizures alone can no longer win the war against drug cartels.

In his welcome remarks, the NDLEA boss said the strong turnout at the programme reflected a shared understanding that drug trafficking is fundamentally an economic enterprise, sustained by financiers, facilitators, money launderers, and professional enablers operating behind every shipment.

“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,” he said.

He noted that criminal organisations are increasingly exploiting technology, cryptocurrencies, complex corporate structures, and legitimate businesses to conceal the ownership and origin of illicit wealth, and that the agency’s response must evolve to match.

The retired Brigadier General said that investigators and prosecutors must be equipped to analyse complex transactions, trace assets across borders, establish beneficial ownership, exploit digital evidence, and build financial cases strong enough to support forfeiture and recovery.

Mr Marwa disclosed that with significant progress already made in seizing narcotics and prosecuting traffickers, the agency’s next priority is dismantling the economic foundations of the drug trade — turning narcotics trafficking into a high-risk, low-profit enterprise.

“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 said.

He called for increased partnership between NDLEA and other institutions as drug trafficking intersects with money laundering, corruption, cybercrime, human trafficking, and illicit arms trafficking, welcoming representatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), as well as judges of the Federal High Court, saying their presence strengthened the link between investigation, prosecution, and adjudication.

He also advocated for synergy among the agency’s directorates — intelligence, investigation, prosecution, forensics, and asset and financial investigation — describing them as interconnected links in a single enforcement chain that must function as one agency.

Mr Marwa reminded participants that asset recovery does not end with seizure or forfeiture, warning that poor management and lack of transparency can erode the value of recovered assets and public confidence in the process.

He expressed confidence that participants would emerge better equipped to follow the money, identify assets, strengthen evidence, secure forfeiture, and ultimately deprive traffickers of the proceeds that sustain their operations.