Government News: Top Stories

Mauritania becoming drug transit point - prosecutor

Reuters Translate This Article
18 August 2007

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritania has become an important transit point for illegal drugs entering Europe, the West African country's deputy public prosecutor said.

Moulaye Abdallah Ould Baba, watching the incineration of 860 kg (1,892 lbs) of cocaine outside the capital Nouakchott, said the Islamic Republic was starting to battle the cartels.

West Africa is emerging as a major hub for Colombian cocaine bound for Europe, where street prices are much higher than in the United States.

'We are starting a major operation to dismantle and eradicate these drug trafficking networks,' Ould Baba told Reuters late on Friday.

The cocaine was seized last week hidden beneath sacks of rice in a parked minibus in the former French colony's biggest drugs bust. It followed the discovery of more than 600 kg of cocaine in May.

Mauritanian authorities said the latest consignment of drugs entered the country by land from Senegal or via its coastline.

'Mauritania has become an important transit point, taking account of the amount of drugs seized.'

Police also incinerated some 15,000 cans of beer, launching a crackdown on alcohol, banned except for foreign diplomats and aid workers.

Elsewhere in West Africa, eight Nigerians were charged in Gambia with illegal possession of cocaine on Saturday. The men were arrested on Thursday at Banjul International Airport having swallowed up to 1.4 kg of cocaine each, police said.

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