Brigadier General Buba Marwa (retd.), the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has urged for a more effective financial offensive against drug cartels, stating that the agency must target the wealth and financial networks that support the illicit narcotics business.
“We should no longer evaluate the fight against drug trafficking primarily on the number of suspects arrested or quantities of drugs intercepted,” Marwa said, adding that criminal networks could recover quickly from such losses if their financiers and assets were not touched.
He spoke in Abuja on Wednesday at the commencement of a specialized training for investigators and prosecutors on financial investigation, asset tracing and recovery.
The program is also focused on the forfeiture and management of assets related to drug trafficking and other organized crimes.
The NDLEA chairman said “Drug trafficking must be treated as a business, which is all about the money, and the networks are beyond those arrested physically for transporting or selling narcotics.
“Financiers, money launderers, facilitators and other professionals who help criminals disguise or transfer illicit funds are critical to the survival of drug organisations,” he said.
So he instructed investigators to follow financial trails as well as traditional drug investigations.
“If we arrest the courier but leave the financier untouched, if we seize the drugs but leave the proceeds with the criminal enterprise, if we secure a conviction but fail to recover the illicit wealth, we have only tackled part of the problem,” Marwa said.
He said that removing traffickers’ financial muscle would make it harder for criminal organizations to substitute seized drugs, recruit new members and fund further operations.
“The drug networks were becoming more difficult to follow,” said Marwa, as criminals increasingly used technology and sophisticated financial arrangements to conceal their proceeds.
He said investigators now had to contend with cryptocurrency transactions, complex corporate structures and legitimate businesses that were alleged to be used to mask the source and ownership of criminal assets.
He said the development required a corresponding improvement in the technical skills of law enforcement officers.
Marwa said NDLEA personnel must be able to disentangle complex transactions, identify the real owners of assets, gather digital evidence and trace proceeds of crime beyond Nigeria’s borders.
“The sophistication of organized crime demands a sophistication in our response,” he said.
“We need to shift from detecting crime to disrupting crime; from arresting offenders to dismantling criminal enterprises; and from confiscating drugs to depriving traffickers of the wealth that motivates and sustains their activities.”
Marwa said NDLEA has made progress in intercepting narcotics and prosecuting suspects, but the next phase of the agency’s operations must focus on making the illicit drug business financially unattractive.
He said traffickers should not be allowed to keep properties, bank balances and other benefits they gained from their criminal activities after their drugs had been confiscated.
The chairman of the NDLEA stated that successful enforcement should cut off the resources of criminal networks to reestablish their operations.
The agency’s goal was to make narcotics trafficking a business in which the risks far outweighed the potential profits, he said.
Marwa also highlighted the connections between drug trafficking and other criminal activities, noting that drug networks often function as part of a broader ecosystem of organized crime.
He said that corruption, money laundering, cybercrime, human trafficking and illegal arms dealing are some of the crimes that can overlap with the narcotics trade.
“The ecosystem of drug trafficking is interlinked with money laundering, corruption, cybercrime, human trafficking, illicit arms trafficking and other forms of organized crime,” he said.
“These links required cooperation between different law enforcement institutions,” said Marwa.
He also urged for closer coordination within the NDLEA especially between officers in charge of intelligence, investigations, prosecutions, forensic analysis and financial and asset investigations.
intelligence gathered by one department should feed into the work of others and not be isolated he said.
The program was attended by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
Institutions are important to be involved, Marwa said, because asset recovery requires cooperation between investigators, prosecutors and the judiciary.
Among others engaged for the training were the recently retired Circuit Judge Michael Hopmeier of the Southwark Crown Court, United Kingdom; former ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN); and the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN).
Other participants were experts in cryptocurrency, money laundering and international asset recovery.
In addition to identifying and confiscating criminal assets, Marwa told officers of the dangers of mismanaging recovered property.
He said that if an asset wasn’t properly managed, it could lose a lot of value between being seized and being disposed of.
According to him, mishandling recovered assets could also create doubts about the integrity of the forfeiture process.
He therefore demanded transparency at every stage, including seizure, forfeiture, custody, management and eventual realisation of recovered assets.
Marwa urged officers attending the training to share the expertise acquired with colleagues and ensure that the lessons were reflected in future investigations.
He said the agency expected participants to become better equipped to trace suspicious transactions, locate concealed assets, produce stronger evidence and obtain forfeiture orders against drug traffickers.
The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, also backed closer cooperation between the judiciary and agencies combating narcotics and financial crimes.
In a goodwill message delivered on his behalf by Justice Inyang Ekwo, Tsoho said the changing nature of drug-related offences required more sophisticated law enforcement techniques.
He said the scope of narcotics crime had expanded beyond conventional drug trafficking to areas such as financial crime and cryptocurrency-enabled money laundering.
According to the message, the subject of the training demonstrated “how extensive and multifaceted drug crimes are and can be, and their ever-expanding frontiers, which ought to be tackled by effective and sophisticated law enforcement.”
Tsoho also commended the NDLEA leadership for its efforts against drug trafficking, saying stronger cooperation between the Federal High Court and law enforcement institutions could enhance Nigeria’s reputation in the international fight against organised crime.
