Senegal busts cocaine trafficking attempt off coast, seizes over 800 kg

The Senegalese navy has seized 805 kg of cocaine during an operation off the coast of the West African country – a raid stressing the strategical position of the country in drug trafficking in West Africa.

The country’s Directorate of Public Relations (Dirpa) announced Tuesday that the seizure was carried out on Sunday (Jan. 22) by a “high seas patrol boat” of the army at 335 km off the capital.

The institution did not however provide further information.

Senegalese customs had announced in October the seizure of 300 kg of cocaine, worth nearly 37 million euros, in a refrigerated truck from neighboring Mali.

In June 2019, the customs also seized 1,027kg of cocaine, in multiple actions. 798 kg of the seized substance was found in 15 brand new cars put in a consignment from Brazil.

Authorities in 2007 made their biggest ever confiscation after they seized 2.4 tons of cocaine in Mbour, in Thiès region.

Central and West Africa have for years been a transit zone for drugs produced in Latin America, but according to an annual report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published in June last year the regions are becoming market for narcotics.

“Between 2019 and 2022 […] at least 57 tons of cocaine were seized in or en route to West Africa, mainly in Cape Verde (16.6 tons), Senegal (4.7 tons), Benin (3.9 tons), Côte d’Ivoire (3.5 tons), Gambia (3 tons) and Guinea-Bissau (2.7 tons),” the report read.