Police in Guinea-Bissau have seized 2.63 tons of cocaine from an aircraft that arrived from Venezuela, according to the judicial police.
During a raid at Bissau’s Osvaldo Vieira International Airport on Saturday afternoon, 78 bales of cocaine were confiscated from a Gulfstream IV jet.
The plane’s five-member crew, including two Mexicans and individuals from Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil, was arrested.
The detainees will face a regional court for interrogation on Monday.
The operation, dubbed “Operation Landing,” was conducted with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre-Narcotics.
This seizure is among the largest recorded in recent years, highlighting West Africa’s role as a cocaine transit point from South America to Europe.
West African nations are commonly used by drug traffickers as transit points for transporting cocaine from South America to Europe.
This recent seizure ranks among the largest recorded in recent years.
According to the 2024 U.N. World Drug Report, cocaine is still one of the most commonly used drugs globally, with 23 million users.
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