Guinea-Bissau police seize nearly 3 tons of ***e

Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, September 10, 2024. Guinea-Bissau's judicial police said that over the weekend, the country's police seized 2.6 tons of ***e from an aircraft arriving from Venezuela at the capital's Osvaldo Vieira International Airport. In a raid on Saturday afternoon, the police confiscated 78 packages of drugs smuggled on a Gulfstream IV aircraft. Five crew members, including two Mexican nationals and citizens from Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil, were arrested.

Cocaine seizures are becoming increasingly common in West Africa. The region has become a key transit hub for drugs bound for Europe from Latin America and Southwest Asia. Guinea-Bissau in particular is seen as a preferred route for international drug cartels. Earlier this year, the son of Guinea-Bissau's former president was sentenced by a US court for leading an international *** trafficking ring. Saturday's ***e seizure operation was carried out in close cooperation between Guinea-Bissau's judicial police and the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the anti-drug department of the European Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre. Neighboring Senegal also seized a record 1,137 kilograms of ***e earlier this year near artis*** mining areas in the east of the country.