Government alarmed at rise of drug trafficking

The volume of cannibis seized by the Senegalese authorities doubled last year and the government says it is increasingly worried about drug gangs using Senegal as a transit point for big shipments of cocaine and heroin. Abdoulaye Niang, the head of Senegal’s narcotics squad, told a press conference on Wednesday that police seized 3.7 tonnes of cannabis last year, more than twice as much as the 1.8 tonnes impounded in 2002. He said most of the cannabis was grown in the Karones islands near the southern beach resort of Cap Skirring and was shipped north in wooden fishing canoes for sale in the capital Dakar. Interior Minister Macky Sall meanwhile expressed concern at the increasing use of Senegal as a transit point for cocaine and heroin on its way from South America and Southeast Asia to European markets. Sall said seizures of hard drugs in Senegal were minimal – a mere 478 grammes of heroin and 1.5 kg of cocaine last year. But he noted there had been two big drug hauls in Europe with Senegalese connections. In March last year, 2.5 tonnes of Moroccan cannabis was discovered in the German port of Hamburg aboard a camper-van that had been shipped out of Dakar, while in October, 7.5 tonnes of cocaine were discovered on board a Senegalese flagged ship that was intercepted by the Spanish navy. Sall appealed for international aid to help Senegal clamp down harder on the powerful drug trafficking gangs that are not just using the country as a transit point, but are also funnelling heroin and cocaine into the local market. “Countries that are being used for transit need support,” he said. According to UN statistics, drug use per capita remains low in Senegal at just two percent of US levels, but the authorities are worried that drug abuse is growing. Doctors in Dakar say an increasing numbers of Senegalese are becoming users and addicts. “More and more we are seeing people who use cocaine and heroine coming in for treatment,” said Dr Momar Gueye, professor of medicine at Dakar’s university hospital. Niang noted that the international drug gangs who move cocaine and heroin through Senegal pay their local collaborators in drugs, not cash, and these drugs are then fed into the local market.