U.S. court orders FBI, DEA to release drug investigative records on president Tinubu

A United States federal judge has ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release investigative documents relating to Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The records are linked to a narcotics trafficking investigation from the 1990s.

Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia gave the ruling on Tuesday, dismissing efforts by the FBI and DEA to block the release of the documents through what is known as a “Glomar response.” The Glomar response is a policy that allows government agencies to neither confirm nor deny the existence of requested records.

“The claim that the Glomar responses were necessary to protect this information from public disclosure is at this point neither logical nor plausible,” Judge Howell ruled.

The case was filed by Aaron Greenspan, an American transparency advocate and founder of PlainSite.org.

He had submitted multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in June 2023 to various U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, seeking information on a heroin trafficking investigation that allegedly involved President Tinubu and others, including Mueez Akande, Abiodun Agbele, and Lee Andrew Edwards.

According to documents obtained and reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, Greenspan’s FOIA requests were denied by the FBI, DEA, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of State, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), all of which initially relied on Glomar responses.

In the lawsuit, Greenspan argued that the records were of significant public interest and cited a 1993 verified complaint by the U.S. Department of Justice that sought the forfeiture of $460,000 believed to be linked to Tinubu and traced to proceeds from drug trafficking.

An affidavit by Kevin Moss, a Special Agent with the IRS at the time, alleged that Tinubu was under investigation for financial transactions that laundered proceeds from narcotics deals. Moss wrote, “There is probable cause to believe that funds in certain bank accounts controlled by Bola Tinubu were involved in financial transactions in violation of U.S. laws and represent proceeds of drug trafficking.”

The affidavit also linked Tinubu to individuals involved in a heroin ring operating in the Chicago area, with Agbele—who was arrested after selling heroin to a DEA agent—reportedly cooperating with law enforcement.

In response to the FOIA suit, Tinubu had intervened in October 2023, objecting to the release of “confidential tax records” and claiming privacy rights. But Judge Howell ruled otherwise, saying, “The public interest in learning about a sitting president’s possible connection to a major drug investigation is undeniably significant.”

Although the CIA was successful in maintaining its Glomar stance—citing national security concerns and the protection of intelligence sources—the judge ordered all other agencies to submit a joint report by May 2 on the status of outstanding issues related to the case.

According to SaharaReporters, U.S. agencies had previously claimed that disclosing information about Tinubu could harm national security. A memo submitted by the CIA and other agencies stated that confirming the existence of records might expose intelligence sources and methods.

Mary C. Williams, a senior CIA official, explained that revealing whether the CIA has records on Tinubu “could cause damage to U.S. national security by indicating whether or not the CIA maintained any human intelligence sources related to Tinubu.”

The case, filed under docket number 1:23-cv-01816-BAH, has stirred renewed debate over President Tinubu’s past. The forfeiture case involving $460,000 resurfaced during Nigeria’s 2023 presidential elections, but was dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja.

Meanwhile, reacting to the U.S. court ruling, Aaron Greenspan said, “Transparency must prevail over secrecy when it comes to public officials. The American public, as well as Nigerians, deserve to know the truth.”