Senegal seizes cocaine off coast of Dakar

A Senegalese naval patrol boat seized 800 kilogrammes (1,763 pounds) of cocaine aboard a vessel 335 kilometres (208 miles) off the country’s capital, the military announced on Tuesday.

Central and West Africa have for years been a transit zone for drugs produced in Latin America, but UN investigators say it is also a growing market for narcotics.

The seizure was made on Sunday, the armed forces said in a statement, giving no details about the intercepted vessel, persons on board, where it left from or the value of the haul.

In October, Senegalese customs seized 300 kilos of cocaine worth around $36 million aboard a refrigerated truck near the Malian border, in the biggest land seizure of the drug in the country’s history.

Between 2019 and 2022, at least 57 tonnes of cocaine were seized in or en route to West Africa, according to a June 2022 report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.