Senegalese navy seizes 690 kg worth of cocaine

The Senegalese navy has seized 690 kg of cocaine being transported to Europe in an ultra-fast go-fast boat and arrested the five Spaniards on board, the army announced in a statement received by AFP on Sunday.

The deep-sea patrol boat intercepted the boat on Friday 220 km off the coast of Senegal.

The patrol boat had to use verbal warnings and later warning shots to stop the boat, which had released its cargo before the intervention; 690 kg of cocaine were recovered, the statement said.

On November 28 and December 16, the Senegalese army had announced seizures at sea of almost three tonnes of cocaine on each occasion.

More than 800 kg of cocaine were also seized in January from a vessel off Dakar by the Senegalese navy.

Long considered a simple transit zone for drugs produced in Latin America en route to Europe, West and Central Africa has also become a region of heavy consumption, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).