Country of transit or consumption? The record seizure of 300 kg of cocaine this Saturday in Kidira shows that the Bamako-Dakar corridor is heavily used by drug trafficking networks.
Appalling! While the Bamako-Dakar corridor is known to be a route used by traffickers, this is the first time in history that Senegalese Customs has made such a large seizure of cocaine by land. And it is huge: 300 kg. The truck stuffed with prohibited goods was arrested by elements of Lieutenant-Colonel Abdoulaye Fall, head of the Kidira brigade. « If such a seizure has been made, it is largely due to Customs’ flair, » says Colonel Ibrahima Guèye, head of the Customs subdivision of Tambacounda. « The vehicle was stopped for questioning (this Saturday) at the entrance of the bridge of Falémé, » says the head of the brigade of Kidira. According to Colonel Abdoulaye Fall, « the arrested vehicle had screws and nails on the body. Better still, when it came to his immobilisation for a much more thorough search, the driver tried to run. This further piqued our curiosity. » He continued: « Once the operation was carried out, we discovered arranged bags with a scorpion stamp at the bottom of the bodywork. Thanks to the kits made available to us by our hierarchy, we were able to detect that it was indeed cocaine. »
For the customs officers, the traffickers had matured their plan: they chose a Saturday, at break time, to try to slip through the cracks. However noted the head of the Kidira office, « it is underestimating us. Our agents have flair and have several strings to their bow to thwart all the plans of the traffickers. » Today, it is a land corridor that has been cordoned off. So far, the only significant seizures have been by air and sea. « This is the first time that such a large seizure of cocaine has been made by land, » he said. In the future, the men of Colonel Ibrahima Guèye « promise to be more vigilant and are ready to block the road to all traffickers who decide to bring fraudulent goods into the country ». It should be noted that the seizure is estimated at more than 24 billion CFA.