The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), has charged investigators and prosecutors of the Agency to intensify efforts at tracing, seizing, and recovering the proceeds and instrumentalities of narcotics trafficking, insisting that the war against drug cartels can no longer be won by arrests and seizures alone.
Marwa said the war against drug cartels could no longer be won through arrests and drug seizures alone, stressing the need to dismantle the financial structures sustaining narcotics trafficking.
Marwa gave the charge on Wednesday, 2nd September 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, organised by the Agency in Abuja.
Marwa said drug trafficking was fundamentally an economic enterprise sustained by financiers, facilitators, money launderers, and other professional enablers.
“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 were increasingly using technology, cryptocurrencies, complex corporate structures, and legitimate businesses to conceal illicit wealth.
The NDLEA boss therefore urged investigators and prosecutors to develop the capacity to analyse complex transactions, trace assets across borders, establish beneficial ownership, exploit digital evidence, and build strong financial cases capable of supporting forfeiture and recovery.
According to him, the Agency’s next priority, following significant progress in narcotics seizures and prosecutions, is to dismantle the economic foundations of the drug trade and make trafficking a high-risk, low-profit enterprise.
Marwa also called for stronger cooperation among the NDLEA’s intelligence, investigation, prosecution, forensic, asset, and financial investigation directorates, as well as closer collaboration with other law enforcement agencies.
He warned that asset recovery must not end with seizure or forfeiture, stressing the need for transparency and accountability in the management and eventual disposal of recovered assets.
In his goodwill message, delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, commended Marwa for the progress recorded by the NDLEA under his leadership.
Tsoho said stronger collaboration between the Federal High Court, the NDLEA, and other law enforcement agencies would enhance Nigeria’s standing in the international community.
He said the growing sophistication and expanding frontiers of drug-related crimes, including cryptocurrency-enabled money laundering, required equally sophisticated law enforcement responses.
The programme brought together NDLEA investigators and prosecutors, judges of the Federal High Court and representatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, among other experts.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
