A Senegalese navy patrol boat has recovered nearly 3 tonnes of pure cocaine from a vessel intercepted 150 km off the coast on Tuesday, the navy said in statement.
It said the boat and its cargo had been escorted to the Admiral Faye Gassama Naval Base in the capital Dakar and handed over to the relevant authorities.
It did not however provide any further details.
Photos posted by the navy on social media platform X showed a rusty-hulled ship called the Ville d’Abidjan at dock, dozens of suitcase-sized bundles wrapped in colourful plastic, and police officers examining a white substance apparently extracted from the haul.
Drug smugglers often use West African countries as a transit point to ship cocaine from South America to Europe.
In its annual World Drug Report in June, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said coca bush cultivation and total cocaine production hit record highs in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available.
