S Leone seizes 700kg of cocaine

2008-07-14 07:26

Freetown - Sierra Leone made its biggest catch of cocaine on Sunday after it seized 700kg of the drug on a plane which landed at Lungi International Airport, said a senior official.

Impoverished West Africa, with its unguarded coastline and sparsely populated interior, became an important trafficking route for Latin American drug runners into lucrative European markets.

"It's the biggest catch ever, we weighed the stuff and it is about 700kg," Assistant Inspector General in charge of crime services Francis Munu said.

"It's worth about $35m in street value in New York, according to a UNODC estimate," Munu said, referring to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Munu also said that the police found five automatic rifles and 350 rounds of ammunition on the plane. Information Minister Ibrahim Kargbo said both members of the plane's crew had fled.

Cocaine smuggling 'biggest threat to S Leone'

He said: "It is not yet clear whether they were merely making a transition for fuel or whether they came to land and make a deposit."

Cocaine smuggling was the single biggest threat to Sierra Leone in the next five to 10 years, a senior security source said last month.

Colombian cocaine cartels started shipping the drug through West Africa a few years ago because their direct routes to United States and European markets were being blocked by anti-narcotics agencies.

UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa urged the international community earlier this week to act quickly to stop powerful drug-trafficking cartels taking over ancient trading routes in West Africa and the Sahel.

Cocaine use was on the rise in Europe, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, which said in its latest annual report that at least 4.5 million Europeans used cocaine in 2006, up from 3.5 million in 2005.

- Reuters