Dr. ir. Jude Roys Oboh

This presentation discusses my research on Nigerian’s involvement in the illicit drug trafficking.  Much is known about Nigeria as a country, however, very little information is available on the involvement of Nigerians in the cocaine trade and who the Nigerian traffickers are.   The general belief is they follow the standard model of organized cartels or criminal gangs and are headed by drug barons who work in partnership with South American cartels.

Consequently, the academic world has largely relied on the information derived from the media or law enforcement but not from firsthand observations and accounts.   Therefore, scholars only have limited insight into Nigerian involvement in the illicit international cocaine business. 

My work provides empirical evidence to explain the involvement of Nigerians in the global cocaine trade, a trend that presents a serious security threat to Africa and the world. Investigating the criminogenic environment created by the Nigerian ‘state crisis,’ it traces the geographic, demographic, economic, historical, political, and cultural factors enhancing cocaine culture in Nigeria.   Based on years of research, this work reveals this social network that relies on “reverse social capital” wherein wealth and power are achieved through illegal means solely to benefit the individual.   This lively, theoretically grounded study examines the new trend of traffickers dominating the illicit cocaine trade through West Africa to destinations across the globe to provide an account of Nigerian involvement in international drug trafficking as it has never been divulged before.   This research will be appreciated by students, scholars, and public policy practitioners in the criminal justice and criminology space;as well as those interested in Nigeria, and problems of African immigrants, and in the international drug trafficking.

I am currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. My latest book is Cocaine Hoppers: Nigerian International Cocaine Trafficking (Lexington Books, 2021).  I was for twenty years a consultant for the Dutch Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands, and a former employee of the FAO-United Nations.