Categories: AFRICA

REUTERS -Niger police seize more than 200 kg of cocaine from mayor’s truck


Read Time: < 1 minute

REUTERS – Niger police seize more than 200 kg of cocaine from mayor’s truck

NIAMEY, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Police in northern Niger have seized more than 200 kg of cocaine worth around $8.7 million that was being transported in the local mayor’s official truck, two police sources said on Monday.

The mayor and his driver, who were in the vehicle at the time, were arrested with 199 bricks of cocaine at a checkpoint on the road heading north out of the desert trading hub of Agadez on Sunday, the sources said.

A statement from Niger’s Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking (OCRTIS) confirmed that there had been a record seizure of more than 200 kg of cocaine in Agadez, but did not give details.

West Africa, most often a transit route for illegal drugs on the way from South America to Europe, has registered a series of record busts in recent years.

Senegal seized more than two tonnes of pure cocaine from a ship off its Atlantic coast in October, and Gambian authorities seized nearly 3 tonnes last January from a shipment originating in Ecuador. (Full Story)

After 17 tonnes of cannabis resin worth around $37 million were seized in Niger last May, Interpol’s drug unit coordinator Jan Drapal told Reuters that drug kingpins were sending larger shipments in response to increasing European demand. (Full Story)


Godfred Meba

Recent Posts

Industrial Fisheries Sector Rejects Fisheries Bill

The Ghana Tuna Association (GTA), and the Ghana Industrial Trawlers Association, both representing the Joint…

18 hours ago

Asanko Gold Stokes Tension Again At Manso Tontokrom

Renewed tension is mounting in Manso Tontokrom, a mining community in the Amansie South District…

18 hours ago

GHANA SIGNS DEBT RELIEF PACKAGE WITH FRANCE WORTH 87.7 MILLION EUROS

BY: DANIEL ASARE Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has touted the country’s recovery from…

2 days ago

Lands Minister Extends Deadline for Small-Scale Mining License Rectification

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah (MP), has granted an…

2 days ago

KENNEDY AGYAPONG SPEAKS OUT!

Mr. Kennedy Agyapong Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, a presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)…

2 days ago

PRATT CALLS FOR UNITED ACTION ON REPARATION

Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr, a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Pan African Progressive…

3 days ago