Marwa: Arrests alone won’t defeat drug traffickers, we’re targeting their wealth
The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Buba Marwa, has called for a stronger focus on the financial assets of drug traffickers, saying arrests alone cannot dismantle organised drug networks.
Marwa said criminal justice efforts should go beyond securing convictions to ensuring that offenders are deprived of the proceeds that sustain their operations.
He spoke at the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
According to a statement issued on Tuesday by Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesperson, Marwa told an audience of judges, law enforcement officials and financial intelligence experts that the success of the fight against crime should also be judged by whether criminal activities are made financially unviable.
“A trafficker who loses his liberty but retains his fortune has not truly been defeated,” Marwa said, warning that such wealth could be used to fund fresh operations and support other members of criminal networks.
He said the NDLEA was therefore strengthening efforts to identify, freeze, forfeit and preserve assets linked to drug trafficking.
Marwa likened arresting traffickers without dismantling their financial networks to “pruning a weed at the stem while leaving its roots undisturbed”, noting that illicit wealth could re-emerge through front companies or other jurisdictions.
He outlined six measures being used by the agency to improve asset recovery under the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act 2004.
Among them, he cited the forfeiture of the $4.2 million Hook Hotel, the freezing of more than $7 million in bank accounts and interim forfeiture orders covering assets worth billions of naira.
