Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

World

Niger police seize record 200kg of cocaine from mayor's car

The seized cocaine is seen on a table at the premises of the Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking in Niamey, 5 January 2022

Image source, Getty Images

A local mayor and his driver have been arrested in a desert in northern Niger with more than 200kg (440lbs) of cocaine in their vehicle, police say.

The two suspects, who have not been named, were allegedly transporting the drug to Libya after it had been smuggled into the country from Mali.

Niger’s drug policing agency said it was the largest quantity of cocaine seized in the West African country.

Advertisement

Drug smuggling and police seizures are becoming more common in the region.

Niger’s Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking (OCRTIS) said on Wednesday that police had been aware of a large quantity of cocaine being transported through the country towards Libya, and had been following the trail.

“[The investigation] led to the seizure on 2 January of 199 bricks of cocaine – weighing a total of 214kg – in a vehicle belonging to the mayor’s office in Fachi,” OCRTIS spokeswoman Nana Aichatou Ousmane Bako said.

The vehicle had left Fachi and was heading towards Libya for the town of Dirkou when it was stopped on Sunday.

“It’s the first time that our country has seized such a big quantity of cocaine,” Ms Bako said, adding that the drugs were heading for Europe, where they had an estimated street value of about $19m (£14m).

The mayor and his driver were taken to Niger’s capital, Niamey, for questioning.

Fachi is an oasis in the Tenere desert about 400km (250 miles) north of the town of Agadez. It is known as a trading centre for salt and dates.

The region is used as a route for multiple types of trafficking – such as moving drugs between South America and Europe and migrant smuggling.

Comments

You May Also Like

European Union

After a Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine was detained, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi announced that the man responsible has been released....

United States

The goal is “energy security,” lobbyists said, although clean-energy advocates counter that wind and solar provide more protection from boom-and-bust oil markets. Russian troops...

World

For many years we have seen how the Soft Power used by the Kremlin works exclusively through culture, exhibitions, musical groups presentations, etc. It...

World

The Azerbaijani diaspora, which numbers some 60 million people around the world has entered the virtual social media battle being waged between Armenia and...