Niger police find cocaine worth nearly $9 million in mayor’s truck

On Jan 3, 2022

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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 440 pounds of cocaine in Agadez but did not give details.

Cocaine worth $44 million found in onion rings cargo at UK border

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 tons of pure cocaine from a ship off its Atlantic coast in October, and Gambian authorities seized nearly three tons last January from a shipment originating in Ecuador.

After 16.7 tons 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.

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