Cameroon: Police Seize 141kg of Nigerian-bound Cocaine

Cameroon: Police Seize 141kg of Nigerian-bound Cocaine

Ntaryike Divine Jr

Douala, Cameroon

4 September 2011

Police in Cameroon’s largest port city and economic hub, Douala have intercepted 141 kg of pure cocaine destined for neighboring Nigeria, a senior officer reported Sunday.  The seizure is considered the biggest drug bust ever in the Central African nation.

Senior police superintendent, Michel Deffo who steered a crack-squad comprising judicial police officers from the capital Yaoundé said the narcotic was illegally imported from Brazil.  “It was carefully tucked in a container labeled as containing imported vegetable cooking oil from Brazil,” the sub-director at the General Delegation for National Security in charge of the Fight against Drug Trafficking added.

A Cameroonian national, Victor Bisong Akon, 36, was nabbed by the police Saturday at the high-class Makepe suburban neighborhood in Douala and named chief suspect in the botched illicit transaction.  He is currently under custody, alongside the seized cocaine, at the city’s magistrate’s court pending charges and prosecution later this week.

Deffo said several other persons initially arrested in the course of investigations have been set free for lack of ample evidence linking them to the drug trafficking case.  They were merely people hired to offload and convey the container to the chief suspect’s residence and are considered innocent until sufficient incriminating facts can be established, he said.

Customs officials at the Douala seaport where the container arrived about a week ago say they were tipped off by Interpol.  They subsequently notified officials at the General Delegation for National Security. 

“The Delegate General for National Security himself, Martin Mbarga Nguele, immediately demanded an investigation be conducted by the judicial police and dispatched the team I am heading,” Deffo explained.  He saluted the high level of collaboration demonstrated by customs officials all through the investigations and ensuing impounding of the container as well as the arrest of the suspect.

The country’s drug enforcement officials are worried that gradually, local and international drug dealers are transforming Cameroon into a destination as well as transit for trafficked narcotics in the Central African sub-region.

In early August, a woman of Thai nationality, Sasitorn Sanoon was arrested by border police at the Douala International Airport as she was about boarding a Kenya Airways flight to Vietnam.  Police charged her with attempting to smuggle out over 2kg of heroin worth over 300 million FCFA [about US$600,000].  Sanoon told prosecutors she was given the luggage containing the heroin by a friend to take to her boyfriend in Vietnam.  She is still under custody.

Drug enforcement officials say peddlers are taking advantage of the country’s weak air and seaport controls, a situation exacerbated by corruption among customs and police officers.  Penalties for possession, use, or trafficking in illegal drugs in Cameroon are severe, and convicted offenders can expect long jail sentences of up to ten years and heavy fines.