By Derek Vanbuskirk
Records about connections between Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and a heroin trafficking network in the U.S. remain sealed more than a year after a federal judge ordered their release, even as Tinubu seeks a meeting with President Donald Trump.
An April 2025 ruling ordered the FBI and DEA to search for and process records related to an investigation into Tinubu after Freedom of Information Act requests were denied by Biden-era officials in 2023. (RELATED: Here’s Why Trump Is Considering Strikes On Another African Nation)
More than a year later, no Tinubu-related records have been produced.
In a May joint status report, Aaron Greenspan, who filed the FOIA requests, called the process a “farce,” writing that after four years he had “still not received a single produced page from Defendants [FBI and DEA] that contains the word ‘Tinubu.’”
“Defendants have succeeded in extending the course of this piecemeal litigation by another year while deliberately protecting the political interests of a foreign politician, which was not Congress’s intent in passing the Freedom of Information Act,” Greenspan’s filing said.
The delays come as Tinubu pursues an audience with Trump, who has taken an aggressive stance against drug trafficking into the U.S.
Nigeria’s ambassador to the U.S. recently suggested the two presidents could meet soon, while another Nigerian official boasted that they had secured Tinubu a seat next to Trump at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly in August.
Such a meeting could prove significant for Tinubu. Gaining Trump’s favor could help reverse U.S. policies that threaten Nigeria’s bottom line over the country’s failure to curb terrorist groups persecuting Christians in Nigeria’s middle belt. Thousands of Christians have been killed in central Nigeria by terrorists or Fulani herders, who are Muslim.
A bill passed by the House in mid-July would pause all foreign aid to Nigeria due to the unchecked killings of Christians in Nigeria’s middle belt.
Lat month, the Emmanuel family were killed along with 25 other Christians in a village in central Nigeria, as local security forces “just stood by and waited for the three hours of shooting to stop. This is a common occurrence” in Nigeria’s middle belt, said a journalist.
The records sought by Greenspan could fill gaps left by Department of Justice civil forfeiture records uncovered by Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin before Tinubu’s 2023 election.
Those records include a 1993 affidavit from IRS Agent Kevin Moss, who detailed connections between Tinubu and individuals involved in a money laundering and white heroin distribution organization in the Chicago area.
According to the affidavit, Tinubu opened a bank account using one of the organization’s addresses and transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars through accounts connected to the organization before nearly $2 million was seized by the U.S. Treasury.
Moss said there was “probable cause” that money being transferred through accounts in Tinubu’s name was “property traceable to such property or represents the proceeds of drug trafficking.”
Tinubu was never criminally charged in the matter, and the civil forfeiture case did not result in a criminal conviction.
After Tinubu was elected president, Greenspan and Hundeyin filed FOIA requests seeking records related to the investigation and any charging decisions involving him. When multiple federal agencies denied those requests, the pair sued to compel the release of the records.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sided with most of the agencies, including the CIA, but ordered the FBI and DEA to search for and process responsive, nonexempt records.
Since then, the agencies have repeatedly requested extensions while attorneys representing Tinubu have intervened in the case to oppose the release of records on privacy grounds, according to filings tracked by Plainsight, a court-monitoring website developed by Greenspan.
Hundeyin told the Daily Caller he agreed with Greenspan’s assessment, saying, “theoretically, this could continue indefinitely.”
Hundeyin believes the details of the case and its release are presumably being withheld from Trump by the “so-called Secret State” so it can maintain control over Nigeria, adding that he doesn’t “foresee a scenario where the U.S. is going to willingly let go of, basically, a vassal, a puppet.”
“It’s very telling that the exact kind of ‘corrupt politician’ that Africa is supposedly famous for is the exact kind of person that is being protected by the U.S. government,” Hundeyin said.
“U.S JUDGE HAS NOT STOPPED RELEASE OF BOLA TINUBU’S FBI FILES
Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court, District of Columbia, has not stopped FBI and five other agencies release of Bola Tinubu’s criminal files. What she declined was an emergency motion requesting for the… pic.twitter.com/wvc2tj4nP0— Peter Obi Grassroots Mobilization. (@PO_GrassRootM) October 24, 2023
Mark Lipdo, founder of the Stefano Foundation, which tracks and reports terrorism in Nigeria, told the Daily Caller that “The stage is now set for further harm to Christians in Nigeria” as terrorist sympathizers in the Nigerian government are “now gradually gaining access to the U.S. President.”
The next joint status report is scheduled for mid-September.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Nigerian Embassy to the U.S. did not respond to the Daily Caller’s requests for comment.
