Drug war: Arresting traffickers not enough - Marwa

The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd.), has said the fight against drug trafficking must go beyond arrests to include the aggressive pursuit and recovery of proceeds of crime.

Marwa spoke while delivering a presentation titled, “Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?” at the ongoing 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

In a statement issued on Tuesday by the NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, Marwa said the success of the criminal justice system should be measured not only by convictions but also by its ability to make crime unprofitable.

“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,” he said.

He explained that a trafficker who loses his freedom but retains the proceeds of his criminal activities could use the wealth to finance further operations and sustain criminal networks.

“The ultimate objective must therefore be to deny criminals the proceeds of their crime, promptly and lawfully, while preserving the value of the property. Nigeria, through the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, will continue to strengthen this approach,” Marwa said.

He cited the forfeiture of the Hook Hotel, a property linked to a fugitive drug suspect, as an example of the agency’s asset recovery efforts.

According to him, the property was recovered through non-conviction-based forfeiture and subsequently sold for $4.2 million, with the proceeds paid into the Federal Government’s forfeited assets account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.