Cocaine crosses the Sahara again. Nigerien police seized 214 kilograms of cocaine in the north of the country on January 2, 2021 – a record -, and arrested the mayor of the commune of Fachi and his driver who tried to transport the drugs to Libya, announced on January 5. the central office for the repression of illicit drug trafficking (OCRTIS).
Nigerien policemen were “on the trail of a quantity of drugs introduced from Mali which was about to be transported to Libya”, declared Nana Aïchatou Ousmane Bako, spokesperson for OCRTIS. The mayor of Fachi, a commune in northern Niger, and his driver were in the vehicle carrying the 214 kilos of cocaine. Fachi is an oasis of 2,000 inhabitants in the heart of the Ténéré desert, located more than 1,600 kilometers from Niamey, the capital, and 450 kilometers Agadez, the big city in the north of the country.
According to Nana Aïchatou, the drug “the market value amounts to 11.73 billion FCFA on resale”, or nearly 17 million euros, was ultimately destined for Europe.
The immense desert northern part of the country, in particular the Salvador Pass area near the border with Libya, is a renowned corridor for all traffic. The Sahara has always been an active ground for the smuggling of migrants, arms, cigarettes, fake medicines and cannabis. The United States is monitoring this area thanks to a large drone base located in Dirkou, in the Agadez region.
“This is the first time that our country has seized such a large amount of cocaine.”
Nana Ousmane Bako, spokesperson for OCRTISto AFP
We remember that a plane that left Venezuela crashed in November 2009 on an improvised runway 15 kilometers from Gao, in northern Mali, with several tons of cocaine on board. But it is true that for the past ten years, cocaine has rather been transiting through the major ports of West Africa and leaving for Europe by boat or by plane.
In March 2012, 17 tonnes of cannabis resin with a market value of 20 billion FCFA (over 30.4 million euros) from Lebanon, via the Togolese port of Lomé, had been intercepted in Niger. And again in June 2018, three tons of cannabis resin probably coming from Morocco hidden in crates of fruits and vegetables had been seized in the country.
Drugs bring in so much money in these poor countries that trafficking is carried out with supposed complicity in both the police and the political spheres. According to some observers in the region, it is not surprising that a mayor has been arrested. The drug lords financed the electoral campaigns of several Nigerien elected officials, from mayors to deputies. What is seen by traffickers as a good investment.
Proof that Nigerien democracy is plagued by corruption, we learned on January 5, 2022 that the authorities renounced to be a civil party in a case of overbilling and unfulfilled deliveries of military equipment in recent years, which nevertheless cost them the trifle of 39.4 billion FCFA (59.4 million euros). This case of overbilling of military material or material not delivered to the State, which had caused a stir in Niger, will ultimately be the subject of an amicable settlement.