The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), and South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), popularly called HAWKS, have agreed to collaborate to tackle the scourge of drug trafficking between the two countries.
This was the high point of discussions at a virtual meeting on Monday, April 11, 2022, between the chairman of the NDLEA, Buba Marwa and the national head of South Africa’s DPCI, SG Lebeya along with members of their teams.
A statement by the NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said Marwa called for an operational memorandum of understanding, (MoU) that will allow both agencies share intelligence real-time, engage in joint operations, especially in the areas of controlled delivery, joint training and personnel exchange programmes among others.
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“Drugs destroy our youths both in Nigeria and South Africa. These drugs are peddled by syndicates across our two countries, this is why we need to partner and collaborate to dismantle their evil web and stop their criminal trade”,
Lebeya in his remarks agreed on all the areas of collaboration identified by Marwa.
According to him, “I’m in agreement with you on the areas you have mentioned. It’s important we collaborate on intelligence sharing real-time. Exchange of programmes for our personnel is also another effective way of sharing knowledge.”
Other areas the meeting agreed would be worked on by the technical teams set up at the close of the discussions include confiscation of proceeds of crime and prosecution of suspects among others.
Secretary to NDLEA, Shadrach Haruna will lead the agency’s technical team that will work with DPCI’s head of serious and organised crime division, Alfred Khana, to fine-tune details of the MoU that will be signed at a later date.
