Marwa urges NDLEA investigators to dismantle drug cartels’ financial networks

Nigeria’s anti-drug chief Buba Marwa says the country cannot defeat narcotics cartels by arresting couriers and seizing shipments while leaving their financiers and wealth untouched.

Marwa, chairman and chief executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, spoke in Abuja while opening an advanced training programme on financial investigations, asset tracing, forfeiture and recovery. He urged NDLEA investigators and prosecutors to intensify efforts to identify and seize the proceeds and tools of drug trafficking.

Drug trafficking, he said, is an economic enterprise supported by financiers, facilitators, money launderers and professional enablers operating behind drug shipments. Criminal organisations are increasingly using technology, cryptocurrencies, complex corporate structures and legitimate businesses to conceal the ownership and origins of illicit wealth.

“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,” Marwa said.

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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 called on investigators to analyse complex transactions, trace assets across borders, establish beneficial ownership, use digital evidence and build cases capable of securing forfeiture and recovery. After progress in drug seizures and prosecutions, he said, the agency’s next priority should be dismantling the economic foundations of the trade and making trafficking a high-risk, low-profit enterprise.

“The sophistication of organised crime demands a corresponding sophistication in our response. 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.

Marwa said drug trafficking overlaps with money laundering, corruption, cybercrime, human trafficking, illicit arms trafficking and other organised crimes. He urged closer cooperation among the agency’s intelligence, investigation, prosecution, forensic, asset and financial investigation directorates, as well as stronger collaboration with partner institutions.

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The sophistication of organised crime demands a corresponding sophistication in our response. 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.