SENEGAL: Senegalese police seize more than two tonnes of cocaine and arrest three south Americans

Record ID: 455636

  • Title: SENEGAL: Senegalese police seize more than two tonnes of cocaine and arrest three south Americans
  • Date: 3rd July 2007
  • Summary: (AD1) MBOUR, SENEGAL (JUNE 29, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MBOUR FIRE BRIGADE, PARAMILITARY POLICE AND DISTRICT ATTORNEY OFFICIALS UNWRAPPING MARIJUANA PARCELS VARIOUS OF OFFICIALS UNWRAPPING MARIJUANA PARCELS PILE OF MARIJUANA FIREMAN POURING PETROL ON THE MARIJUANA OFFICIALS WATCHING FIREMAN SETTING MARIJUANA ON FIRE VARIOUS OF MARIJUANA BURNING
  • Embargoed: 18th July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Senegal
  • Country: Senegal
  • Reuters ID: LVA35C0US95XLMEYHYMG7GKPMH8D
  • Story Text: Police in Senegal discovered 1.2 tonnes of cocaine stashed on board a deserted sailing ship after it drifted into the Atlantic resort of Mbour, 70 kilometres south of the capital Dakar, on Friday (June 29). It's the West African nation's biggest ever drugs seizure.
    The vessel - which apparently had a mechanical problem - was then searched by security officials who confiscated documents and a bank card from Guinea-Bissau, as well as two airline tickets from Rio de Janeiro to Bissau.
    "They discovered that there was no one on board the boat. However, they found a lot of sacks, so they took one of the sacks, opened it and to their great surprise they found that it contained cocaine tablets. So the sacks that we found on the boat were 50 in number, each weighing around 24 kilograms," said Captain Adama Gueye of the country's paramilitary police.
    U.N. officials have recently expressed concern that Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony south of Senegal, could become overrun by drug cartels, which its cash-strapped security forces are ill-equipped to tackle.
    Police arrested three men from Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador on Saturday (June 30). Information from the men led police to discover another tonne of drugs stashed in a private home the following day.
    The seizure highlights concerns that impoverished parts of West Africa, with its unguarded coastline and sparsely populated interior, is becoming a major trafficking route for Latin American drug runners into Europe.
    "Nowadays what we have almost proved is the presence in West Africa of Latin American criminal organisation that take care of receiving large shipments and of reorganising the reshipment towards final markets," says Antonio Mazzitelli, the West African representative for the United Nations Office On Drugs And Crime (UNODC).
    The cocaine seizures occurred during a week of anti-drugs campaigning in Senegal. As part of the week's events, police around the country burn the drugs they have captured over the last 12 months.
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