CAMBRIDGE — The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), has said the fight against drug trafficking will not be won by arrests alone, but must include an aggressive pursuit of criminal proceeds. Speaking at the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime at the University of Cambridge, UK, Marwa argued that a trafficker who loses liberty but keeps his fortune “has not truly been defeated” because the wealth can fund new operations.
He told the session chaired by Honourable Judge Wendy Tien that NDLEA is now embedding investigators and prosecutors from the start of cases to secure faster restraint and forfeiture orders. Citing the Proceeds of Crime Act 2022 and other laws, he highlighted recent wins: the forfeiture and $4.2m sale of Hook Hotel linked to a fugitive suspect, and last month’s freezing of over $7m in bank accounts plus interim forfeiture of filling stations, buildings and vehicles tied to a meth syndicate. He also referenced the case of suspected drug baron Amadi Simon, where three hotels were placed under professional managers to preserve value, and stressed the use of unexplained wealth provisions and early sale of depreciating assets.
Marwa said these tactics have been built into Nigeria’s National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030, with three guiding principles: speed over sequence, preservation of value, and institutionalization. He acknowledged challenges such as delays in mutual legal assistance and limited forensic capacity, and called for faster cross-border cooperation and wider recognition of non-conviction-based forfeiture. “Arresting a trafficker without dismantling his fortune is like pruning a weed at the stem while leaving its roots undisturbed,” he said, reaffirming NDLEA’s commitment to dismantling the financial architecture of drug cartels.
