NDLEA Freezes $7M Accounts, Secures Asset Forfeiture

Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), announced that the agency has frozen bank accounts containing over $7 million and secured interim forfeiture orders for multi-billion naira assets linked to a fugitive methamphetamine syndicate. Marwa made these statements during the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom, where he discussed the importance of making crime financially unprofitable.

He highlighted that merely arresting traffickers without dismantling their financial structures does not effectively combat drug trafficking. The NDLEA's asset recovery strategy involves embedding investigators and prosecutors from the start of cases to expedite securing restraint and forfeiture orders.

The agency's actions are supported by the NDLEA Act 2004, Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022, and Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022. Marwa also mentioned the forfeiture of the Hook Hotel, linked to a fugitive drug suspect, sold for $4.2 million, with proceeds deposited into the Federal Government’s forfeited assets account.