COVID-19 restrictions are not stopping flow of drugs, with traffickers simply upping the size of illegal shipments.



Two recent drug seizures involving cannabis and cocaine show how drug traffickers are packing larger loads into less frequent shipments, an INTERPOL official suggested this week.

Authorities in Niger recently seized 17 tonnes of cannabis resin, estimated to have a street value of approximately 31 million euros ($45.6 million) from warehouses in Niamey, notes a statement from INTERPOL.
Representing the country’s largest-ever cannabis bust, the weed was shipped from Lebanon to the Togolese port of Lomé and then transported 1,000-plus kilometres by lorry, INTERPOL reports. Its destination was Libya.

South Africa similarly witnessed its largest seizure recently, this time for cocaine. Police there confiscated 973 cocaine bricks said to be worth 32 million euros ($47 million) from a fishing vessel, INTERPOL reports.

During March and April, drugs with an estimated street value of about 100 million euros ($147 million) were seized as part of efforts, codenamed Lionfish, to disrupt drug trafficking in Africa and the Middle East. Enforcement was set up at borders and other hotspots during a specific two-week period, first in the African continent and then in the Middle East and North Africa.

The finds represent the fruits of INTERPOL-coordinated investigations in conjunction with customs and police officials from 41 countries around the world. With respect to the Niger and South Africa discoveries, a total of 287 people have been arrested, the agency reports.
“The striking results of these two operations demonstrate the sheer scale of the trade in illicit drugs and its international nature,” Jürgen Stock, INTERPOL’s secretary general, said in the statement.

“While many of these drugs are neither produced nor consumed here, this has not spared us from the violent crime inevitably wrought by such activity,” continues Brigadier General Adel Abulkasem Al Sharwy Bentaleb, head of Libya’s INTERPOL National Central Bureau.

It seems drug kingpins are responding to pandemic-related travel restrictions and border closures by ratcheting up the size of the drug shipments that are sent, said Jan Drapal, coordinator of INTERPOL’s drugs unit, as per a report from Reuters.

“Recently, we saw not only in Africa, but also in other countries, many record-breaking seizures,” Drapal said. “What was confirmed by this operation is that COVID-19 did not stop anything,” he added.

Beyond the big Niger and South Africa busts, INTERPOL reports two other Lionfish operations resulted in the recovery of many other drugs.

Authorities seized 200 kilograms of amphetamines, 56 kg of heroin, 30 kg of methamphetamines, 21 kg of cocaine powder, 169 pieces of crack cocaine, 214 ecstasy tablets, more than 4.5 million tramadol tablets, 720 kg of cannabis and 10,000 steroids, the agency notes.

INTERPOL points out that criminals are “constantly seeking new routes and ways to smuggle narcotics across borders.”
A report released by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in May 2020, amidst widespread COVID-19 lockdowns, indicated higher activity levels of drug supply via darknet markets.

An EMCDDA report from 2016 noted that cannabis was the most widely used drug in Europe, which is still the case today. “While the market is dominated by herbal cannabis grown within the EU, the cannabis resin from Morocco has been increasing in potency and may be trafficked to the EU alongside other illicit goods and human beings,” the report states.

Considered mostly a transit route for illegal drugs, Africa had been witnessing massive drug seizures, starting even before the pandemic.

Earlier this year in Morocco, 9.2 tonnes of cannabis resin bales were discovered buried in sand in a remote area on the outskirts of Guelmim. And late last year, a woman identified as Madam Caroline was arrested in Nigeria while transporting more than 500 kilograms of weed by container truck.