At least seven people have been arrested in Senegal since the seizure of 2,4 tonnes of South American cocaine, police said on Monday, while denying the country had become a hub for Europe-bound drugs.
Police official Major Moussa Fall told a press conference that at least four foreigners, a Colombian, a Venezeulan, an Ecuadorian and a French woman, had been arrested since Sunday along with three presumed local accomplices.
The detainees would appear before a court in the town of Thies by Wednesday at the latest, he said.
Senegalese authorities confiscated more than 1,2 tonnes of cocaine Sunday, in a new record haul only four days after the seizure of almost the same amount of the drug near the seaside resort of Nianing, south of the capital, Dakar.
Agence France-Presse journalists were shown the contraband seized on Sunday, which had been packed into plastic bags labelled ”Urea: For sale only in Venezuela.”
The second seizure was made at a villa barely 2km from the boat where the first haul emerged.
The drugs were concealed in a basement where police also discovered an AK47 assault rifle and several other weapons, wads of cash in several currencies and loads of ammunition.
”These are people who were in the least involved in money laundering,” said Fall.
He said the drugs had not been destined for Senegal but had been unloaded there after a row over cash between the smugglers and their ”host” in a neighbouring country he did not name.
Experts said that Guinea-Bissau, south of Senegal, had become a ”warehouse” for Latin American cocaine bound for Europe.
”Senegal cannot become a hub or a centre for redistribution of drugs,” Fall said. ”When they suffer such an enormous loss, 2,475 tonnes, the criminals are discouraged … they have failed.” — Sapa-AFP