Senegal and the Cocaine Corridor: Why West Africa, and Why Now?

Senegal is fast becoming the face of a wider shift: West Africa is no longer just a stopover on cocaine's route from South America to Europe. It has become one of the trade's main platforms.

Le Monde's July 2026 investigation described Senegal as the new hub for shipping cocaine consumed in Europe, according to Ghana Business News, which also cites GI-TOC research calling Dakar's Atlantic port the region's most strategic export point to Spain and other European markets. The numbers show why.

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) reports that annual cocaine seizures in West Africa rose from about two tonnes in 2018 to more than 30 tonnes in 2025, making it the region's fastest-growing criminal market.

At least a third of the cocaine exported to Europe is estimated to transit the region. Senegal's own seizures tell the story: nearly three tonnes taken at sea by its navy in November 2023, and a record 1,137 kilograms on land near an eastern artisanal mine in 2024.

Why West Africa? GI-TOC points to several factors: its position between Latin America and Europe, governance gaps, existing maritime and air infrastructure, poorly regulated financial systems, and law enforcement attention on other routes. Traffickers also adapt quickly.

A Dakar narcotics commissioner told Le Monde that when one route is watched, networks shift, and that some now dissolve cocaine in fuel to beat inspections.

Why now?
Three things stand out in the reporting.

First, the players have changed. African Security Analysis says criminal groups from Montenegro, Serbia and Albania have quietly established themselves since 2019 in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cape Verde, working with South American groups such as Brazil's PCC and local intermediaries.

Second, the map has shifted. UNODC's West and Central Africa representative says Guinea-Bissau is no longer the main gateway, with seizures now in Cape Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire.

Third, the Sahel is being drawn in: UNODC reported 1,466 kg seized in Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger in 2022, against a 13 kg average from 2013 to 2020.

The local cost is rising.
Cocaine use in Dakar fell sharply from its 1990s peak, but analysts warn transit brings dirty money and corruption. Ghana's narcotics chief, Brig. Gen. Maxwell Abuba Mantey, has said the region is no longer only a corridor and is increasingly a consumer market and in some cases a production hub.

That links directly to the Dunkirk case involving a container from Ghana. Seizures in Europe and Senegal show that the trade now runs through ports, fuel, mines and land borders across the sub-region, and that enforcement in one country pushes traffickers into the next.

Without shared intelligence, port integrity and financial controls, each success in Dakar or Tema may simply move the trade along the coast.

Mustapha Bature Sallama
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Analysis,

International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. (USIP)

[email protected]
+233555275880

Sources
Africa Defense Forum, "Cocaine Traffickers Target Senegal" (GI-TOC figures, Wélé and Mantey quotes): https://adf-magazine.com/2026/09/cocaine-traffickers-target-senegal/

Ghana Business News, "How West Africa became the cocaine route to Europe and America": https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2026/09/20/how-west-africa-became-the-cocaine-route-to-europe-and-america/

African Security Analysis, "Africa's Expanding Cocaine Nexus": https://www.africansecurityanalysis.org/reports/africa-s-expanding-cocaine-nexus-west-african-transit-hub-and-kenya-s-emerging-market

DW via The Point, "Senegal: From cocaine consumer to key smuggling hub": https://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/headlines/senegal-from-cocaine-consumer-to-key-smuggling-hub

Al Jazeera, "West Africa's Sahel becoming a drug trafficking corridor, UN warns": https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/19/west-africas-sahel-becoming-a-drug-trafficking-corridor-un-warns

Ecofin Agency, "Major cocaine seizure off Senegal's coast": https://www.ecofinagency.com/public-management/0112-45100-major-cocaine-seizure-off-senegal-s-coast-highlights-west-africa-s-role-in-drug-trafficking