Dakar (AFP) – Dozens of cocaine packages piled up, weighing in at four tonnes and valued at $317 million -- the seizure by Liberian police in July was a stark symbol of west Africa's expanding role in the global cocaine trade.

Issued on: 12/11/2026 - 15:41

In recent years, the region has become a favoured route for traffickers moving drugs from producing countries in South America to Europe, where the highly lucrative cocaine market has exploded.

Drug trafficking is now "one of the greatest threats" facing Liberia, President Joseph Boakai said in a national address in August, after several large-scale seizures.

"Drugs are destroying young lives, weakening families, fuelling violence," he warned.

Politics has been tarnished too. Following the major drugs busts, former Liberian vice president Jewel Howard-Taylor was arrested for alleged involvement in an international drug trafficking network.

But Liberia is by no means unique -- the drugs trafficking scourge is region-wide.

Regional scourge

In neighbouring Sierra Leone, one of Europe's most wanted cocaine traffickers, the convicted fugitive Dutchman Jos Leijdekkers, is operating with apparent support from the highest echelons of power, according to law enforcement, local testimonies and court documents gathered by AFP.

"All the states in west Africa are vulnerable to cocaine trafficking," Lucia Bird, west Africa director at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), told AFP.

"The region is perfectly positioned between the cultivation areas in Latin America and consumption markets, particularly in Europe," she said.

A GI-TOC report published in March spotlighted the issue.

Around 30 percent of the drug consumed in 2025 in Europe went through west Africa, according to estimates in the report.

But the true scale of the trafficking remains unknown -- it is difficult to quantify given its illegal nature and the analysis of seizures is not a reliable indicator.

– Maritime route –

Several factors have contributed in recent years to the growing importance of the west Africa route, which is largely maritime.

With improvements to its port infrastructure and road networks, west Africa has become more attractive to traffickers and its ports increasingly well-connected hubs.

Although transporting drugs via the region takes longer and is more expensive, "the risk of having your product seized is lower", Bird told AFP.

As Europe has tightened its controls on ships coming from South America, cargoes originating in west Africa attract less scrutiny from European customs.

But with west Africa increasingly seen as high-risk, Bird said perceptions and security measures were starting to change.

Overspill

As in other regions, cocaine trafficking fuels corruption among local elites and political decision-makers.

This has "profound implications for governance and devastating effects on the provision of public services and the socio-economic development of states", the GI-TOC report said.

Another problem is the overspill from the trade in bulk onto the domestic market.

Smaller dealers and traffickers are sometimes paid in kind -- namely, in cocaine -- but lacking sufficient channels to resell it in Europe, the white powder is dumped on the local market and sold at affordable prices.

This has led to "an increase in the consumption of powdered cocaine -- and, to a much greater extent, crack -- over the past five years," according to the report.

Three countries stand out for the particularly low price of cocaine on the local market: Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Mali.

© 2026 AFP

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