The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has urged investigators and prosecutors to intensify efforts to trace and recover illicit wealth linked to drug trafficking.
The NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive, Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd.), gave the charge while opening an advanced capacity-building programme on financial investigations, asset tracing, forfeiture and recovery in Abuja.
Marwa said arrests and drug seizures alone could not dismantle the financial networks sustaining narcotics trafficking.
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He said drug trafficking remained fundamentally an economic enterprise supported by financiers, facilitators, money launderers and professional enablers.
He therefore urged investigators to focus on the money behind drug shipments and criminal networks.
“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.
The NDLEA chief said organised crime groups increasingly use technology, cryptocurrencies, complex corporate structures and legitimate businesses to conceal illicit wealth.
He urged investigators and prosecutors to strengthen their ability to analyse complex transactions, trace assets across borders, establish beneficial ownership and use digital evidence in financial crime cases.
Marwa said the agency’s next priority, following progress in narcotics seizures and prosecutions, must be dismantling the economic foundations of the drug trade.
He said this would make narcotics trafficking a high-risk and low-profit enterprise.
The NDLEA chairman said the growing sophistication of organised crime required a more coordinated enforcement response.
“The sophistication of organised crime demands a corresponding sophistication in our response,” he said.
He called for a shift from crime detection to crime disruption and from individual arrests to dismantling entire criminal enterprises.
According to Marwa, drug trafficking intersects with money laundering, corruption, cybercrime, human trafficking and illicit arms trafficking.
He said the links made sustained cooperation within the NDLEA and among partner institutions essential.
Marwa also urged greater coordination among the agency’s intelligence, investigation, prosecution, forensics, asset and financial investigation directorates.
He described the directorates as interconnected parts of a single enforcement chain that must operate collectively.
Marwa said no single institution had all the information, expertise or capacity needed to confront sophisticated criminal networks.
The programme brought together judges, prosecutors, investigators and financial crime specialists from Nigeria and abroad.
Participants included representatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Federal High Court.
Marwa said their participation would strengthen the connection between investigation, prosecution and adjudication.
In a goodwill message delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, commended Marwa for the NDLEA’s progress under his leadership.
Tsoho said stronger collaboration between the Federal High Court, NDLEA and other law enforcement agencies could improve Nigeria’s international standing in law enforcement.
He described the training as an important effort to strengthen institutional capacity in financial investigations, asset tracing and recovery.
The Chief Judge also highlighted the growing complexity of drug-related crimes, including cryptocurrency-enabled money laundering.
He said the expanding nature of such crimes required effective and sophisticated law enforcement responses.
Marwa urged participants to share the knowledge gained across NDLEA directorates and translate it into coordinated enforcement action, stressing that the training should not become another routine capacity-building exercise.
He also warned that asset recovery did not end with seizure or forfeiture.
According to him, poor management and inadequate transparency could reduce the value of recovered assets and weaken public confidence.
He therefore called for accountability throughout the process, from seizure and forfeiture to asset management and eventual realisation.
The NDLEA chief expressed confidence that the training would strengthen participants’ ability to follow financial trails, identify assets, secure forfeiture and preserve the value of recovered property.
He said the ultimate objective was to deprive narcotics traffickers and organised criminal networks of the wealth financing their operations.
