Senegal has made on Sunday its biggest seizure of cocaine - about 1.25 tons with a street value of $ 100m - just a few days after the previous record haul.

The drugs were found in the seaside resort of Nianing after an empty sailing boat with 1.2 metric tons was found nearby last Thursday. Researches conducted by the Mbour Gendarmerie Brigade ended with the arrest of six people on Saturday, leading to the second haul. One of the suspects was picked at Fumela in the region of Fatick.

Commandant Moussa Fall the head of Mbour Gendarmerie Investigation Department says they also found two guns in the house where the drugs were seized. Three Senegalese were arrested, along with men from Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and a lady from France. Commandant Fall said they were arrested as accomplices who knew the ongoing drug trafficking and failed to report it to the police. “They even benefited some luxurious advantages from the traffickers”, commandant Fall revealed but would not name what sort of advantages were involved. Moussa Fall further said “he does not exclude further spectacular discoveries in the saga.”

Meanwhile, police in Mbour say they found plane tickets from Brazil to Guinea-Bissau on board the boat which had been abandoned near Nianing.
Experts say that West Africa has become a major hub in the trafficking of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.

In April, UN Office on Drugs and Crime head Antonio Maria Costa said he feared Guinea-Bissau could become a “narco-state” following several large cocaine seizures. More than 600kg was seized in Bissau last September but disappeared after being stored in the treasury. Former Guinea-Bissau Prime Minister Aristides Gomes said he had ordered the drugs to be burnt but last week the country’s magistrates’ union said the correct procedures had not been followed. The judges said they were concerned about the government’s alleged role in the drugs’ trade. Seven top officials, including former ministers and police commanders, were arrested over the affair but have not been charged. There have also been large cocaine seizures recently in Ghana and Sierra Leone.