Guinea navy seizes not less than 1.5 tons of cocaine

According to a statement released by the Guinean army on Wednesday, the Guinean navy detained more than 1.5 tons of cocaine on Sunday from a ship flying the Sierra Leonean flag.

During one of the army's ongoing surveillance missions of Guinea's maritime territory, 62 bags, each containing 25kg of cocaine, and another, containing 22kg, were discovered in the hold of the ship.

Four Sierra Leoneans, three Ghanaians, and three Guineans make up the ship's crew, according to the army's information and public relations division.

The statement continued, adding that investigations are ongoing, and that the Minister of National Defense had officially turned over the 10 ship's crew members and 1,572 kilograms of cocaine to the prosecutor of the Court of First Instance in Kaloum, Conakry.

According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released in June 2022, West and Central Africa, long seen as a simple transit zone, has also developed into an area of considerable drug consumption.

According to the UNODC, at least 57 tons of cocaine were found in or on their way to West Africa between 2019 and 2022, primarily in Cape Verde (16.6 tons), Senegal (4.7 tons), and Benin (3.9 tons), according to the report.

Source