The army released a statement on Sunday, December 24, announcing that the Senegalese navy had apprehended the five Spaniards on board an ultra-fast go-fast boat and confiscated 690 kg of cocaine that was being transported to Europe.
The boat was intercepted on Friday 220 km off the coast of Senegal by an oceangoing patrol boat.
The boat had released its cargo prior to the intervention, and the patrol boat had to use verbal warnings and warning shots to stop it. 690 kg of cocaine were found, according to the statement.
The Senegalese army declared the seizure of almost three tonnes of cocaine at sea on November 28 and December 16, respectively. The Senegalese navy also found and confiscated more than 800 kg of cocaine from a ship off the coast of Dakar in January of this year.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), West and Central Africa has evolved from being long thought of as a straightforward transit region for drugs made in Latin America on their way to Europe to a region with high drug consumption.
At the Autonomous Port of Dakar in June 2019, two Italian-flagged ships yielded up 1.3 tonnes of cocaine to Senegalese customs officials. Since 2007, this was Senegal’s second-largest cocaine haul. Early in November, a ship headed for Dakar experienced another seizure of nearly one tonne on the high seas, according to research conducted by ENACT.
