Guinea-Bissau police seize tons of cocaine from Venezuela – Voice of Nigeria

Police in Guinea-Bissau seized 2.6 tons of cocaine over the weekend on a plane that arrived in the West African country’s capital, Bissau, from Venezuela, judicial police said.

Agents seized 78 bales of drugs smuggled in a Gulfstream IV plane during a raid at Osvaldo Vieira International Airport in Bissau on Saturday afternoon, police said in a statement.

The five-member crew, including two Mexicans and citizens of Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil, were arrested, including the pilot.

Cocaine seizures are increasing in West Africa.

According to a UN report published earlier this year, the region has become a major transit point for drugs from Latin America and Southwest Asia bound for Europe.

Guinea-Bissau in particular is known as a favorite route for international drug cartels.

Earlier this year, the son of the country’s former president, Malam Bacai Sanha, was sentenced by a US court to more than six years in prison for running an international heroin trafficking ring.

Saturday’s seizure of cocaine was carried out in close cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Maritime Analysis and Operations Center–Narcotics, a European organization, the judicial police said in their statement.

Neighboring Senegal also reported a record-breaking seizure of cocaine earlier this year: 1,137 kilograms (2,506 pounds). It is the largest amount ever seized in the country and is valued at $146 million. The seizure took place at an artisanal mine in the east of the country.

Africa News/Hauwa M.