Guinea-Bissau police have intercepted 2.63 tonnes of cocaine detected on an airliner flying from Venezuela into the West African country’s capital, according to judicial police.
Agents seized 78 bales of cocaine smuggled in on a Gulfstream IV aircraft during a raid at Bissau’s Osvaldo Vieira International Airport, according to a police statement.
The aircraft’s whole crew of five, including the pilot, was apprehended. They included two Mexican nationals as well as individuals from Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil.
According to the announcement, the inmates will appear before a regional court on Monday for interrogation.
According to police, the raid, codenamed “Operation Landing,” was carried out in collaboration with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Maritime Analysis and Operations Center-Narcotics.
Drug smugglers often use West African countries as a transit point to ship cocaine from South America to Europe. The seizure at the weekend is one of the biggest recorded in recent years.
Cocaine remains among the most widely used drugs worldwide with 23 million users, according to the 2024 U.N. World Drug Report.
