MAURITANIAN NATIONALITY USED TO SMUGGLE COCAINE INTO GAMBIA

August 2, 2019

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MAURITANIAN NATIONALITY USED TO SMUGGLE COCAINE INTO GAMBIA

Official Sources say

By Saloum Sheriff Janko

When Gambia’s anti-narcotic Officers seized 48 blocks of cocaine from a Lebanese Food Company allegedly belonging to the Tajideens and Ossama families, documents showed Mauritanian nationals instead of Lebanese–the country of origin of suspects, Mehdi Tajideen, a Gambian Lebanese and Sales Manager at Laura’s Food, and Ossama Mahmoud, also a Lebanese national currently in The Gambia .

The seizure was made during at the Gambia Port Authority in Banjul official sources, told ForGambia News Thursday.

Police said arrests were made and the matter is still under investigations. The street value for the intercepted cocaine is yet to be established.

The accused persons have been accused of using a shipment in the name of Mauritanian nationals to smuggle the 48 blocks of cocaine into the country. They are yet to be charged, according to the NDEA Deputy Spokesperson Yassin Ndimbalan.

In 2010 Gambian police seized 2.34 tonnes of cocaine – worth an estimated one billion dollars – bound for Europe and arrested a dozen suspected traffickers after a joint investigation with British detectives.

Twelve people of various nationalities were also arrested after investigators discovered the drugs in an underground bunker in a warehouse outside the Gambian capital Banjul.West Africa is a major stop-off point for drugs, often from South America heading to Europe, although officials say it is impossible to say exactly where this consignment was heading at this stage.