GUINEA seized more than 1.5 tonnes of cocaine from a Sierra Leone-flagged ship, the army said yesterday.

The cocaine was found in the hold of a vessel boarded by the navy during a routine patrol on Sunday, according to an army statement.

The ship’s crew was made up of four Sierra Leoneans, three Ghanaians and three Guineans, the statement said.

Authorities handed over the cocaine and crew members to prosecutors in Conakry, the capital, where investigations into the incident are ongoing, the statement added.

West and Central Africa have long been key transit hubs in the global cocaine trade, with local drug consumption increasing in recent years, according to a report published last year by the United Nations office on drugs and crime.

Between 2019 and 2022, at least 57 tonnes of cocaine were seized in or en route to West Africa, according to the report.

Over that period, 16.6 tonnes were seized in Cape Verde, 4.7 tonnes in Senegal and 3.9 tonnes in Benin, the report said. – AFP, April 6, 2023.