‘Drug barons must lose their wealth,’ Marwa declares at Cambridge

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Marwa (rtd.), has said the fight against drug trafficking cannot be won through arrests alone, stressing the need to aggressively target the proceeds of illicit activities.

Marwa made the remarks while speaking to an international gathering of judges, law enforcement chiefs, financial intelligence experts and academics at the ongoing 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

In a statement made available to journalists on Tuesday in Abuja by the NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, Marwa said the criminal justice system should focus not only on securing convictions but also on making crime financially unprofitable.

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He spoke on the theme, “Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?”

According to Marwa, “The effectiveness of the criminal process should not be measured only by the number of convictions secured. It should also be measured by whether crime is made unprofitable.

“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.

“The ultimate objective must therefore be to deny criminals the proceeds of their crime, promptly, and lawfully while preserving the value of the property. Nigeria, through the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, will continue to strengthen this approach.”

Addressing the session chaired by Justice Wendy Tien, Marwa likened arresting a drug trafficker without dismantling his financial network to “pruning a weed at the stem while leaving its roots undisturbed”.

He warned that illicit wealth could resurface “under a different name, through a different front company, in a different jurisdiction.”

The NDLEA chairman outlined six strategies adopted by the agency to strengthen asset recovery, anchored on the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act 2004, the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022 and the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022.

Marwa cited the forfeiture of the Hook Hotel, a property linked to a fugitive drug suspect, as one example of the agency’s asset recovery efforts.

He said the property was recovered through non-conviction-based forfeiture and subsequently sold for $4.2 million, with the proceeds paid into the Federal Government’s forfeited assets account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He also disclosed that NDLEA investigators and prosecutors were now working together from the early stages of cases, a development he said had reduced the time between arrests and the securing of restraint orders.

According to him, the agency froze bank accounts worth more than $7 million in the previous month and secured interim forfeiture orders covering assets worth billions of naira, including filling stations, multi-storey buildings and exotic vehicles allegedly linked to a fugitive methamphetamine syndicate.

Marwa also discussed the case of Amadi Simon, who was arrested in Switzerland in a joint operation involving the NDLEA, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and authorities in Switzerland, Greece and France.

He said three hotels allegedly linked to the suspect were placed under professional asset managers instead of being shut down, in order to preserve their value as going concerns pending the outcome of the trial.

The NDLEA boss further highlighted the use of provisions relating to unexplained wealth and living beyond legitimate means as investigative tools, as well as the interlocutory sale of perishable and depreciating assets to prevent loss of value before final judgment.

Marwa said the measures had been incorporated into Nigeria’s National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030, making the financial disruption of drug cartels a sustained national priority.

He summarised the agency’s approach under three principles: speed over sequence, preservation of value and institutionalisation.

However, Marwa acknowledged challenges including delays in mutual legal assistance, limited forensic accounting capacity and the need to balance the rights of accused persons with the responsibility of the state to preserve assets pending trial.

He called for faster international cooperation mechanisms and stronger cross-border recognition of non-conviction-based forfeiture orders to improve the effectiveness of asset recovery efforts against transnational drug trafficking networks.