They intercepted on Monday 33 kg of cocaine, worth 2.7 billion CFA francs (more than 4 million euros) hidden "in hiding places in a Mercedes-type vehicle registered abroad", in a village in the center of the country, according to a press release published the same day.
A cargo of 30 kg, worth 2.4 billion CFA francs (around 3.6 million euros) was intercepted on June 1 in another village in the center of the country, near neighboring Gambia. The cocaine was hidden "in the cavities of the doors and the rear trunk" of a vehicle "coming from a country bordering Senegal", indicated, without further details, a customs press release on Sunday. A driver and his passenger were arrested during this operation.
Several cocaine seizures have been announced in recent months by customs, including one of a ton in mid-April in the east, bordering Mali. Senegal borders Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Mali, some of these countries are known to be transit zones for drugs produced in Latin America heading to Europe.
West Africa has also become a region of high drug consumption in recent years, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Three hundred kilos of cocaine was seized in Senegal in a refrigerated truck coming from Mali in 2022.
The army announced in November 2023 the seizure of nearly three tons of cocaine from a ship boarded in international waters off the coast of Senegal.
Source: VOA
