This archive report was first published on 15 October 2021.
Published on October 15, 2021, a report by the UN's drugs and crime office (UNODC) highlighted West Africa's growing role in the global drug trade.
According to the report, the amount of cocaine seized on the continent had grown tenfold between 2015 and 2019, rising from 1.2 to 12.9 tonnes.
Over the same period, 54 percent of the seizures were conducted in West and Central Africa, with the majority of the cocaine destined for Europe.
Although flows of both cocaine and heroin have increased, the UNODC also points to rising cannabis and tramadol seizures, with tramadol seized in West and Central Africa accounting for 86 percent of the global total between 2015 and 2019.
Tramadol seized in West and Central Africa accounted for 86 percent of the global total between 2015 and 2019, the report said.
The military in the Sahel state of Niger also seized a record 17 tonnes of cannabis in March, according to NGO Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, thought to be worth $37 million.
But cocaine is the most valuable drug, with Gambian law enforcement officers in January discovering 2.9 tonnes in a salt shipment from Ecuador, estimated to be worth $88.5 million.
Global Initiative said in April that smugglers traffic a variety of drugs across the Sahara, but that "cocaine is by far the most profitable, and consequently the most intricately tied to the stability of the region".
Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony with a porous coastline and cultural ties to Brazil, is an important stop on the African smuggling route, with politicians and senior military figures implicated in the drug trade.
A trafficking expert in the capital Bissau, who requested anonymity, said that both groups "protected" traffickers, making it difficult to bring smugglers to justice.
Despite a landmark case in March 2020, where a court in Bissau handed down record prison sentences to 12 smugglers linked to the seizure of nearly two tonnes of cocaine the previous year, the two main defendants were tried in absentia and never imprisoned.
Global Initiative said in its report that trafficking hubs "emerge in areas where the rule of law is weak, but not entirely absent", with failed states being bad for business and smugglers constantly varying their routes and methods to keep one step ahead of the law.
