{"id":16024,"date":"2026-11-12T15:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T15:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/west-africa-a-new-hub-of-global-cocaine-trafficking-report\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T15:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T15:16:10","slug":"west-africa-a-new-hub-of-global-cocaine-trafficking-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/west-africa-a-new-hub-of-global-cocaine-trafficking-report\/","title":{"rendered":"West Africa, a new hub of global cocaine trafficking \u2013 Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"West<\/p>\n

Dozens of cocaine packages piled up, weighing in at four tonnes and valued at $317 million \u2014 the seizure by Liberian police in July was a stark symbol of west Africa\u2019s expanding role in the global cocaine trade.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the region has become a favoured route for traffickers moving drugs from producing countries in South America to Europe, where the highly lucrative cocaine market has exploded.<\/p>\n

Drug trafficking is now \u201cone of the greatest threats\u201d facing Liberia, President Joseph Boakai said in a national address in August, after several large-scale seizures.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrugs are destroying young lives, weakening families, fuelling violence,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Politics has been tarnished too. Following the major drugs busts, former Liberian vice president Jewel Howard-Taylor was arrested for alleged involvement in an international drug trafficking network.<\/p>\n

But Liberia is by no means unique \u2014 the drugs trafficking scourge is region-wide.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Regional scourge \u2013<\/h2>\n

In neighbouring Sierra Leone, one of Europe\u2019s most wanted cocaine traffickers, the convicted fugitive Dutchman Jos Leijdekkers, is operating with apparent support from the highest echelons of power, according to law enforcement, local testimonies and court documents gathered by AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the states in west Africa are vulnerable to cocaine trafficking,\u201d Lucia Bird, west Africa director at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe region is perfectly positioned between the cultivation areas in Latin America and consumption markets, particularly in Europe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A GI-TOC report published in March spotlighted the issue.<\/p>\n

Around 30 percent of the drug consumed in 2025 in Europe went through west Africa, according to estimates in the report.<\/p>\n

But the true scale of the trafficking remains unknown \u2014 it is difficult to quantify given its illegal nature and the analysis of seizures is not a reliable indicator.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Maritime route \u2013<\/h2>\n

Several factors have contributed in recent years to the growing importance of the west Africa route, which is largely maritime.<\/p>\n

With improvements to its port infrastructure and road networks, west Africa has become more attractive to traffickers and its ports increasingly well-connected hubs.<\/p>\n

Although transporting drugs via the region takes longer and is more expensive, \u201cthe risk of having your product seized is lower\u201d, Bird told AFP.<\/p>\n

As Europe has tightened its controls on ships coming from South America, cargoes originating in west Africa attract less scrutiny from European customs.<\/p>\n

But with west Africa increasingly seen as high-risk, Bird said perceptions and security measures were starting to change.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Overspill \u2013<\/h2>\n

As in other regions, cocaine trafficking fuels corruption among local elites and political decision-makers.<\/p>\n

This has \u201cprofound implications for governance and devastating effects on the provision of public services and the socio-economic development of states\u201d, the GI-TOC report said.<\/p>\n

Another problem is the overspill from the trade in bulk onto the domestic market.<\/p>\n

Smaller dealers and traffickers are sometimes paid in kind \u2014 namely, in cocaine \u2014 but lacking sufficient channels to resell it in Europe, the white powder is dumped on the local market and sold at affordable prices.<\/p>\n

This has led to \u201can increase in the consumption of powdered cocaine \u2014 and, to a much greater extent, crack \u2014 over the past five years,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

Three countries stand out for the particularly low price of cocaine on the local market: Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Mali.<\/p>\n

\n

The post West Africa, a new hub of global cocaine trafficking \u2013 Report<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dozens of cocaine packages piled up, weighing in at four tonnes and valued at $317 million \u2014 the seizure by Liberian police in July was a stark symbol of west… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}