Police in Guinea-Bissau intercepted 2.6 tons of cocaine from a plane that arrived from Venezuela in the capital city, Bissau, over the weekend, according to judicial police reports released on Monday.
During a Saturday afternoon raid at Osvaldo Vieira International Airport, law enforcement agents confiscated 78 bales of cocaine hidden on a Gulfstream IV aircraft. The five-member crew, comprising two Mexicans and citizens from Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil, were arrested, including the pilot.
Cocaine seizures have been increasingly frequent in West Africa, as the region becomes a significant transit point for drugs from Latin America and Southwest Asia heading to Europe, as highlighted in a recent U.N. report.
Guinea-Bissau is notably a favored route for international drug cartels. Earlier this year, the son of the former president, Malam Bacai Sanha, was sentenced to over six years in the U.S. for running an international heroin trafficking ring.
The recent cocaine bust was executed with the assistance of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre–Narcotics, a European agency, as stated by the judicial police.
Additionally, Senegal made headlines earlier this year with a record-breaking cocaine seizure of 1,137 kilograms (2,506 pounds) — the largest ever seized on land, valued at $146 million — discovered near an artisanal mine in the east of the country.
