Africa must strengthen cross-border cooperation to fight drug trafficking – NACOC boss

The Director-General of the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), Major-General Maxwell Obuba Mantey, has called for stronger cross-border cooperation among African countries to combat drug trafficking and transnational organised crime.

He said the increasing threat posed by synthetic drugs, cocaine trafficking and illicit financial flows required countries to move beyond fragmented national responses.

Major-General Mantey made the call in Ghana’s statement delivered at the closing of the 33rd Meeting of Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies, Africa (HONLEA Africa), held in Vienna, Austria, from September 8 to 11.

The meeting brought together heads and representatives of African drug law enforcement agencies to discuss ways to strengthen regional and subregional cooperation in the fight against illicit drugs.

Major-General Mantey said trafficking networks operate across multiple jurisdictions and exploit gaps in national enforcement systems.

“Cooperation is therefore not a diplomatic courtesy to be affirmed in closing statements; it is the operational prerequisite for any of our national strategies to be successful,” he said.

He advocated a neighbour-to-neighbour approach as a practical starting point for strengthening cooperation among African countries.

According to him, intelligence sharing, joint patrols and coordinated border management could help countries disrupt trafficking networks more effectively.

He cited Ghana’s bilateral cooperation with neighbouring countries, as well as collaboration between The Gambia and Senegal, as examples of how direct cooperation between neighbouring states could support broader regional efforts.

The NACOC Director-General also referenced a high-level dialogue hosted in Accra in November 2025 on “Mapping the Future of Drug Markets in West Africa – Synthetics, Cocaine, Criminal Money, and Strategic Responses.”

He said the concerns raised at the dialogue remains relevant, particularly the increasing impact of synthetic drugs on young people and the threat posed by organised crime and illicit financial flows to governance and state institutions.

Major-General Mantey urged African countries to strengthen intelligence sharing and coordinated investigations to enable information gathered in one jurisdiction to support enforcement action in another.

He also called for stronger joint operations, border management and other mechanisms to disrupt the activities of international drug-trafficking networks.

He reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to strengthening bilateral and regional partnerships and also support the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and other member states in the fight against illicit drugs.