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Between 2019 and mid-2021, at least 42 tons of cocaine were seized in or en route to West Africa.
The Senegalese Navy intercepted more than 2,000 kilos of cocaine on a vessel involved in international drug trafficking 196 nautical miles (363 kilometers) from Dakar, the capital of the West African country, the Army reported.
“The first searches made it possible to discover pure cocaine on board, whose weight is estimated at 2026 kilograms,” declared Colonel Mactar Diop, Director of Information and Public Relations of the Senegalese Army in a statement collected today by the local website Leral.net.
On the ship, called La Rosa and which was intercepted on October 17, there was a crew of five members, whose nationality was not specified.
According to the Army, “the operation was a success” thanks to the air support of an Air Force maritime patrol aircraft and the French Falcon-50 aircraft stationed in Dakar.
“The ship, the cargo and the crew have been made available to the competent administrations for further investigations,” Diop added.
West Africa is a transit zone for the trafficking of cocaine and heroin from Latin America, through maritime and air transport, bound for Europe.
On October 17, 2021, a vessel carrying 2,026 kg of pure cocaine was intercepted by the Lac Retba and Cachouane boats of the Senegalese National Navy 363km from Dakar with the support of the Casa 235 maritime patrol plane of the Army of the Air and the French Falcon-50. pic.twitter.com/darEZqak6K
– Senegalese National Navy (@MarineNation_SN) October 19, 2021
But, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in this region there are also local laboratories for the manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants and precursors – the legal chemicals used to make different drugs. and there has been an increase in the use of all types of narcotics.
According to the UNODC drug monitoring platform, between 2019 and mid-2021, at least 42 tons of cocaine were seized in West Africa or en route to this region, mainly in Cape Verde (11 tons), Gambia. (3), Guinea Bissau (2.7), Senegal (2.7), Ivory Coast (1.9) and Benin (1.3). (I)
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