On Sunday (December 24), the Senegalese navy revealed the seizure of 690kg of cocaine en route to Europe.
The drugs were confiscated from an ultra-fast go-fast boat, and all five Spaniards on board were arrested, as announced by the army in a statement.
The interception occurred 220 km off the coast of Senegal, where an ocean-going patrol boat had to issue verbal warnings and fire shots to halt the boat.
The cargo had already been released by the time of the intervention, but the authorities managed to recover the 690 kg of cocaine.
This incident follows two other sea seizures announced by the Senegalese army on November 28 and December 16, involving nearly three tonnes of cocaine each time. In January of the same year, the Senegalese navy confiscated over 800 kg of cocaine from a ship off Dakar.
While West and Central Africa have historically been transit areas for drugs traveling from Latin America to Europe, the region is now facing increasing drug consumption, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
In June 2019, Senegalese customs seized 1.3 tons of cocaine from two Italian-flagged ships at the Autonomous Port of Dakar, marking the second-largest cocaine haul in Senegal since 2007.
ENACT research also reveals another significant seizure of nearly one ton from a vessel destined for Dakar on the high seas in early November.