NIAMEY, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Police in northern Niger have seized more than 200 kg of cocaine worth around $8.7 million that was being transported in the local mayor’s official truck, two police sources said on Monday.
The mayor & his driver, who were in the vehicle at the time, were arrested with 199 bricks of cocaine at a checkpoint on the road heading north out of the desert trading hub of Agadez on Sunday.
A statement from Niger's Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking (OCRTIS) confirmed that there had been a record seizure of more than 200 kg of cocaine in Agadez, but did not give details.
West Africa, most often a transit route for illegal drugs on the way from South America to Europe, has registered a series of record busts in recent years.
Senegal seized more than two tons of pure cocaine from a ship off its Atlantic coast in October, & Gambian authorities seized nearly 3 tons last January from a shipment originating in Ecuador.
After 17 tons of cannabis resin worth around $37 million were seized in Niger last May, Interpol's drug unit coordinator Jan Drapal told Reuters that drug kingpins were sending larger shipments in response to increasing European demand.
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