Guinea-Bissau police discovered 2.63 tonnes of cocaine on an aircraft that had flown in from Venezuela at the country’s capital, Bissau.
The judicial police reported the seizure of 78 bales of drugs that were secretly transported on a Gulfstream IV plane during a raid at Bissau’s Osvaldo Vieira International Airport on Saturday afternoon.
The entire crew, consisting of five individuals, including the pilot, were apprehended, among which were two Mexican nationals, as well as citizens of Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil.
The detainees are scheduled to undergo questioning at a regional court on Monday. The operation, dubbed “Operation Landing,” was conducted in collaboration with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre-Narcotics.
Criminals frequently use West African countries as a stopover to transport cocaine from South America to Europe. This weekend’s confiscation is reported to be one of the largest in recent years.
According to the 2024 UN World Drug Report, cocaine remains one of the most widely used drugs globally, with 23 million users.