48 hours after the seizure of cocaine at Keur Ayib, near the Gambian border, the customs authorities have seized another 33kg of the same drug in the centre of the country. The value of the seizure is estimated at 2 billion 700 million Fcfa. This series of seizures has been going on for several months.

One drug seizure follows another in Senegal. Just 48 hours after the seizure of cocaine in Keur Ayib, Nioro department, Kaolack region, the Customs announced that it had intercepted 33kg of the same drug in a locality in the center of the country. The total value of the seizure is estimated at “around two billion seven hundred million (2,700,000,000) CFA francs”. In a press release, the Communication and Public Relations Division of the Senegalese Customs announced that the interception operation was carried out by the Customs Mobile Brigade, Subdivision of Fatick, “took place this Monday, June 3, 2024 at around 11 a.m. in Ngouloul (not far from Gandiaye)”. Giving further details, the document points out that “the drugs were concealed in fitted hiding places in a foreign-registered Mercedes-type vehicle”. Customs also reports that “three individuals were arrested during the operation”.

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On June 1, a similar seizure was made by officers of the Keur Ayib Customs Commercial Brigade, Kaolack Subdivision. Thirty (30) kilograms of cocaine with an estimated value of “two billion four hundred million (2,400,000,000) CFA francs” were found “on board a foreign-registered Hyundai Santa Fé vehicle”.

According to the Customs Communications Department, “the drugs were concealed in the cavities of the vehicle’s doors and rear trunk”. The same source adds that “the said vehicle, coming from a country bordering on Senegal, was subjected to a portable scanner, a non-intrusive control tool acquired as part of the Customs Administration Modernization Program (Promad) and made available to units for greater efficiency in the search for and repression of illicit product trafficking”. In its explanations, the Communications Division stresses that “this control mechanism enabled us to foil the ingenious modus operandi used by the traffickers to deceive the vigilance of the agents”. The operation also revealed that “the couriers (a driver and his companion) were arrested”.

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In its press release, the customs administration reaffirms “its determination to combat trafficking in all its forms, and invites the public to cooperate and support it in carrying out its missions”.

While we must congratulate ourselves on the admirable work carried out by our customs officers at various sites across the country, we can’t help but wonder about the massive cocaine interceptions carried out by our soldiers of the economy over the last few months. It’s fair to say that not a month goes by without news of the seizure by our customs officers of several dozen kilos of this highly dangerous substance. And it’s hard to believe that Senegal is just a place of transit and that none of this deadly powder remains in the country for local consumption.

We have to wonder whether it isn’t time for the country’s authorities to start thinking and raising awareness, so that our fellow citizens are made aware of the danger posed by the massive arrival of this drug in the country. And we shouldn’t congratulate ourselves on these serial seizures, given that, on average, for every 1kg of drugs intercepted, 10 slip through the net.

By Dieynaba KANE / dkane@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH