National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (1)

In 2005, Reuters published a report on the growing methamphetamine (meth) industry in West Africa. The region has been a transit point and hub for Latin American cocaine going into Europe. Nigeria has had a very visible role – an old Global Security dot org report describes Nigeria as the “hub of African narcotics trafficking,” citing two studies, which showed that 65 per cent of the heroin seizures of 50 grams or more in British airports came from Nigeria and 20 per cent of all heroin from Southwest Asia transited through Nigeria.

The Global Security dot org report is undated but I am guessing

that it was written in the late-1990s. Where these figures stand today, I don’t know, but I know from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) drug busts and reports of Nigerians being caught by foreign authorities for drug trafficking that Nigeria still plays a major role in the region.

A few weeks ago, the NDLEA announced that it had discovered a super meth lab in Asaba and arrested eight people, including four Mexicans. When an operation involves the Mexicans, you can be sure that there is a lot of money involved because they are not likely to leave Latin America to come all the way to Nigeria for small change. Why is the meth industry taking off in West Africa? Well, the Reuters report offers some explanation.

The first is the practicality in producing meth. Whereas climate dictates where other hard drugs like cocaine, heroin and hashish are produced, meth can be produced anywhere and the ingredients, found in cold and asthma medicine, are accessible to most people.  The second reason is cost – according to the report, it costs $1,500 to make one kilo of meth, which sells for $150,000 in Japan. With such outstanding profits, poor local law enforcement expertise, and corruption, it is no wonder that the meth industry is growing for export mostly to Asia.

Despite the challenges of poor funding, it looks like the NDLEA is doing its best to detect smugglers at the airports, cannabis farms and meth labs. There is very little report on the NDLEA drug detections from our land borders, but that is a weak spot for control in just about every area of our economy. However, the Agency still faces many challenges – lack of training opportunities, lack of resources and lack of manpower.

Since 2003, there have been talks about amending the NDLEA Act, and a bill was considered in the National Assembly, but the NDLEA is still operating with the 1989 Act and one of the reported goals of the current DG is to strengthen the Act.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Act, enacted on 29th December 1989, was established to “…enforce laws against the cultivation, processing, sale, trafficking and use of hard drugs and to empower the Agency to investigate persons suspected to have dealings in drugs and other related matters.”

The NDLEA is composed of a chairman who is the chief executive and accounting officer of the Agency; a representative of the Nigeria Police Force, not below the rank of an Assistant Inspector-General; the Director, Military Intelligence (the aforelisted being appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Attorney General of the Federation); the Comptroller-General of Customs; the Director, State Security Service; a representative of the Federal Ministry of Justice not below the rank of a Director; the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency; a representative each of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Health not below the rank of Director; and three other persons (I assume can be upstanding members of the public).

The agency has a long list of functions including: the enforcement and due administration of the provisions of the Act; the coordination of all drug laws and enforcement functions conferred on any person or authority, including Ministers in the Government of the Federation and by any such laws; adoption of measures to eradicate the illicit drug business from cultivation to distribution; and basically, doing anything it deems fit in its duty to eradicate the trade in and consumption of illicit drugs, including the use and compensation of informants, the monitoring of persons and resources suspected of being a part of illicit drug business and the confiscation of property acquired with proceeds therefrom.

The Act in section 4 bestows “Special powers” on the Agency, giving them the power to “cause investigation to be conducted as to whether any person has committed an offence under this Act; and with a view to ascertaining whether any person has been involved in offences under this Act or in the proceeds of any such offences, to cause investigation to be conducted into the properties of any person if it appears to the Agency that that person’s lifestyle and extent of the properties are not justified by his ostensible source of income.”

To do this, the agency may, with the approval of the Attorney General of the Federation, invite persons to furnish it with information, returns, accounts and other such documents to be audited.

Section 4(4) limits these special powers thus: “For the purpose of carrying out or enforcing the provisions of this Act, all officers of the Agency involved in the enforcement of the provisions of this Act shall have the same powers, authority and privileges (including power to bear arms) as are given by law to members of the Nigerian Police.”

In some jurisdictions like the United States of America and the United Kingdom, anti-terrorism laws have been enacted, which give very wide powers to law-enforcement officers regarding how long they can detain suspects of terrorism-related offences.

In this case, if it is suspected that the proceeds from the drug trafficking are used to fund terrorism activities, then all sane and humane detention procedures are ignored (if you have read some of the stories of those detained for suspicion of terrorist activities, you will agree that in some cases all law and order is thrown out of the window, but then again, it is all for the protection of the larger interest and public policy in these jurisdictions so that the sacrifice of the liberty of the few is worth the protection of the larger society).