The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) seized at least 286 assets and 600 bank accounts of drug barons between January 2021 and August 2022.
NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, made the disclosure.
He also stated that 249 exotic vehicles seized and 37 properties forfeited, all scattered across the country.
The agency’s seizures came against the backdrop of the categorisation of Nigeria by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as the transit point for “heroin and cocaine intended for European, East Asian, and North American markets.”
According to the UN agency, since 2004 “drug traffickers have been increasingly using West African countries, including Nigeria for smuggling large amounts of cocaine from South America into Europe and North America. The country has a relatively high rate of drug abuse due to the continued availability of illicitly manufactured and diverted pharmaceutical products containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.”
The NDLEA also indicated that it seized N871.53m worth of illegal drug funds between January 2021 and August 2022.
It explained that N619.12m was recorded as final illegal drug funds forfeiture and N252.41m as interim forfeiture. The agency grouped this under its drug supply reduction effort where it revealed that it arrested 18,940 suspected drug traffickers from January 2021 to July 2022.
