The Senegalese navy has seized 690kg of cocaine being transported to Europe in an ultra-fast go-fast boat and arrested the five Spaniards on board, the army announced in a statement on Sunday (December 24).

An ocean-going patrol boat intercepted the boat on Friday 220 km off the coast of Senegal.

The patrol boat had to issue verbal warnings and fire warning shots to stop the boat, which had released its cargo before the intervention; 690 kg of cocaine were recovered, the statement said.

On 28 November and 16 December, the Senegalese army announced seizures at sea of nearly three tonnes of cocaine on each occasion.

Throwback

More than 800 kg of cocaine were also seized in January this year from a ship off Dakar by the Senegalese navy.

Long regarded as a simple transit area for drugs produced in Latin America on their way to Europe, West and Central Africa has also become a region of heavy drug consumption, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In June 2019, Senegalese customs seized 1.3 tons of cocaine from two Italian-flagged ships at the Autonomous Port of Dakar. 

This was the second-largest haul of cocaine in Senegal since 2007. According to research by ENACT, a further seizure of almost one ton from a vessel destined for Dakar occurred on the high seas in early November.

Additional sources • AFP