Cocaine smugglers have long been sending the drug to Europe from South America via West Africa, including through Sierra Leone (AC Vol 48 No 13). In July 2008, then Transport Minister Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay was suspended and later sacked during an investigation into the arrival of 700 kilograms of cocaine in a twin-engined aircraft plane which landed at Lungi airport.
He denied any wrongdoing and was not prosecuted for any criminal offence. Fast forward to October 2023, when authorities in Antwerp intercepted a shipment of 7.7 tonnes of cocaine hidden between soya beans exported from Sierra Leone – the first in a series of similar incidents. Last December, Liverpool-based criminals were sentenced to long prison terms after importing £140 million worth of cocaine hidden in bags of gari that came from Sierra Leone.
On 20 September last year, a private jet with a fake registration number landed without permission at Freetown. It carried four Mexicans and one Dutch national, who initially refused to submit their documents. The captain, who claimed not to speak English, later explained that he had been paid US$20,000 for a trip from Liberia to Mexico with the men.
It was widely speculated that the jet had flown from South America loaded with cocaine, but the authorities found nothing suspicious and later released the men after they paid a $100,000 fine. Asked for comment on the incident, the US Drug Enforcement Administration told Africa Confidential at the time it, ‘does not comment on ongoing investigations. On 13 January 2025, Guinean authorities found seven suitcases with 180kg of cocaine and $100,000 in cash in a Sierra Leonean embassy vehicle. The ambassador, Alimamy Bangura, was recalled to Freetown, but the Guinean government would not let him go, we hear, and only relented when the Sierra Leone Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba came in person to bring him back.
Five days later, the Sierra Leonean police discovered an abandoned custom-built mini-submarine, of a type cocaine smugglers have used to transport cocaine from larger ships to the shore or between countries, at Black Johnson Beach, a famed natural beach. The police concluded that nothing of security interest was found after they examined the craft. Experts on the smuggling say that once in Sierra Leone, the drugs will be hidden in containers bound for export to Europe or given to ‘mules’ to hide the drug on their person or in luggage, but myriad other means are used to get the drugs to their destination.
Credit: Africa Confidential Special Report
