A Nigerian senator wanted by federal authorities in Chicago for allegedly leading an international drug-trafficking ring has lost a bid to block attempts to bring him to the United States.

In a written opinion docketed today, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle threw out a lawsuit seeking an order prohibiting American officials from seizing Buruji Kashamu.

Norgle did not address the contention that U.S. officials joined Nigerian political figures in an unsuccessful conspiracy to illegally abduct Kashamu from his home in Lagos before he was sworn in as a senator in May.

Instead, Norgle held that Kashamu does not have standing to pursue his claim in a federal court.

Kashamu sought relief under a provision of the Mansfield Amendment that states “No officer or employee of the United States may directly effect an arrest in any foreign country as part of any foreign police action with respect to narcotics control efforts.”

The U.S. Justice Department has interpreted that provision to bar American narcotics agents from taking part in raids or other law enforcement actions in other countries that may lead to arrests.

In his opinion, Norgle noted there are only 11 court rulings discussing the provision.

All of those rulings, he continued, were issued in criminal cases.

However, he wrote, the “consensus opinion from those cases is that the Mansfield Amendment is prescriptive; Congress did not intend for and did not create a private right or remedy.”

Under that circumstance, the courts have no jurisdiction to consider Kashamu’s suit, Norgle held.

He granted the federal government’s motion to dismiss the suit with prejudice.

The lead attorneys for Kashamu are Matthew J. Piers of Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym Ltd. and Scott J. Frankel of Frankel & Cohen.

Because Norgle addressed a question of first impression — whether an individual may bring a civil suit under the Mansfield Amendment — Kashamu likely will challenge the ruling before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Piers said.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abigail Lynn Peluso.

Spokesman Joseph Fitzpatrick of the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.

In 1994, a federal grand jury returned an indictment in an alleged scheme to import heroin into the United States.

Kashamu and 14 co-defendants were charged in a superseding indictment returned in 1998.

Thirteen of Kashamu’s co-defendants have been convicted in the case, while he and another co-defendant are still fugitives.

One of those convicted was Piper Kerman, an American whose memoir about her year in jail became the basis of the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black.”

Prosecutors contend Kashamu was the drug ring’s kingpin; he maintains they have confused him with his now-deceased brother.

Kashamu was arrested in England in 1998 at the request of U.S. officials. He was released in 2003 after an English judge declined to order his extradition.

The judge ruled the U.S. government had not presented enough evidence to justify Kashamu’s extradition.

Kashamu returned to Nigeria, where he became a politician and supporter of former president Goodluck Jonathan.

Kashamu twice asked that the indictment against him dismissed. Both motions were denied and the 7th Circuit upheld those denials.

In his civil suit, Kashamu alleged operatives from the Nigerian National Drug Law Enforcement Agency surrounded his house in Lagos on May 22.

The operatives were accompanied by two white men who presumably were agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration or another U.S. agency, Kashamu alleged.

Although he was not arrested, he contended, he remained a prisoner in his home for six days until a Nigerian court found the arrest warrant was invalid.

Kashamu maintained the United States had not made a formal request to extradite him.

He sought an injunction barring American officials from trying to “abduct” him.

In declining to consider that request, Norgle emphasized that he was not reaching the merits of Kashamu’s allegations.

“In reaching the decision that it is without jurisdiction, the court makes no finding whether the government does or does not intend to extradite Kashamu in the future,” he wrote, “and the court makes no fining regarding the legalities of the government’s previous attempt to seize and remove Kashamu from Nigeria.”

The case is Buruji Kashamu v. Loretta E. Lynch, et al., No. 15 C 3159.