The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), declared on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, that the global fight against drug trafficking cannot be won through arrests and convictions alone, insisting that law enforcement agencies must aggressively target and strip criminal syndicates of the financial assets sustaining their operations.
Marwa made the assertion while delivering a presentation titled “Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?” at the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, held at the University of Cambridge. The session was hosted by the Centre for Geopolitics and chaired by Honourable Judge Wendy Tien.
Speaking before an international audience of judges, security chiefs, and financial intelligence experts, Marwa argued that criminal justice systems must redefine success beyond prison sentences.
”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,” Marwa stated.
He likened arresting traffickers without seizing their illicit wealth to “pruning a weed at the stem while leaving its roots undisturbed,” warning that unrecovered capital quickly resurfaces through front companies across multiple jurisdictions.
The NDLEA chief outlined six financial disruption strategies deployed by Nigeria, backed by the NDLEA Act 2004, the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022, and the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022: Highlighting the recovery of the Hook Hotel linked to a fugitive suspect, which was forfeited and sold for $4.2 million, with proceeds remitted directly to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
By pairing prosecutors with investigators at the onset of cases to accelerate restraint orders. In the past month alone, NDLEA froze bank accounts containing over $7 million and secured interim forfeiture orders on multibillion-naira assets, including filling stations and luxury vehicles linked to a fugitive methamphetamine cartel.
Also citing the joint international operation targeting suspected drug baron Amadi Simon, where three linked hotels were placed under professional court-appointed managers to preserve their going-concern value during trial.
The agency deployed lifestyle audits to trace illicit assets and conducting early sales of perishable assets to prevent value loss prior to final judgment.
Marwa noted that these asset recovery frameworks have been institutionalized under Nigeria’s National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030, ensuring financial disruption remains a permanent pillar of the nation’s anti-drug strategy.
