Drugs with a street value of almost 100 million euros have been seized in operations in Africa and the Middle East, including two significant busts that show how dealers are pressing bigger loads into their shipments, Interpol said on Monday.
Interpol worked with customs and police authorities from 41 nations for two operations in March and April that organized enforcement action at borders and different areas of interest.
In Niger, authorities seized 17 tons of cannabis, worth around 31 million euros ($37 million), from distribution centers in the capital Niamey. The drugs, bound for Libya, represent the biggest bust in the West African nation’s set of experiences, Interpol said in a release.
In South Africa, the police seized 973 cocaine blocks worth around 32 million euros from a fishing vessel and arrested 10 individuals, Interpol said. The police said the take was one of South Africa’s biggest.
Exactly 287 individuals were arrested in those activities and different ones with more modest takes over the two months, Interpol said.
Jan Drapal, the coordinator of Interpol’s drugs unit, said the seizures highlighted how drug bosses were sending bigger shipments because of Coronavirus travel limitations and border closures, which have confined their capacity to all the more oftentimes move more modest amounts of drugs by means of individual deliveries.
Increasing consumption in places, for example, Central and Eastern Europe and rising cocaine production in South America – the two of which predate the pandemic – have additionally determined the advance toward bigger shipments, he said.
“They chose to bring as many drugs as would be prudent immediately,” Drapal said. “As of late we saw in Africa as well as in different nations many record-breaking seizures.”
“What was affirmed by this activity is that Coronavirus didn’t stop anything,” he said.
Africa, which is viewed as for the most part a transit route for illicit drugs like cocaine coming from South America to Europe, has recorded an increase of record busts lately.
Police in Cape Verde seized a record 9.5 huge loads of cocaine from a boat in 2019. Gambian police seized almost 3 tons in January from a shipment coming from Ecuador.
