By: Seringe S.T. Touray
The French Navy has already broken its annual record for drug seizures, intercepting nearly six tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated €320 million from a fishing vessel off West Africa on August 29th, a development that underscores the wider regional crisis affecting The Gambia where drug trafficking and abuse are on the rise.
Maritime authorities said 5,919 kilogrammes of cocaine were confiscated in international waters during the operation, which was led by a French frigate deployed under Mission Corymbe, France’s long-running naval mission that patrols the Gulf of Guinea and West Africa to counter piracy and trafficking.
The bust was made possible through intelligence shared by British and American police services, as well as the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotics (MAOC-N), a Lisbon-based multinational body created by seven European countries to coordinate international crackdowns on drug trafficking at sea.
A criminal investigation has been opened in the French port city of Brest. Officials have not disclosed the nationality of the crew or the vessel’s flag, but Admiral Nicolas Vaujour stressed that with 45 tonnes of narcotics already seized this year, France has surpassed last year’s total, underlining what he called a sharp surge in transatlantic trafficking.
The seizure highlights a wider crisis directly affecting The Gambia, which has increasingly become both a transit point and a victim of the drug trade. In 2021, Gambian authorities intercepted nearly three tonnes of cocaine at Banjul port hidden inside salt containers, the country’s largest haul to date.
More recently, the Drug Law Enforcement Agency of The Gambia (DLEAG) has reported major arrests involving cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy, and the synthetic drug known as Kush. Officials warn that international trafficking networks are using Gambian territory as a route for cocaine shipments bound for Europe, while also fuelling a surge in domestic abuse. In 2025 alone, seizures have included over 125 kilogrammes of cocaine and almost two tonnes of cannabis, alongside dozens of arrests across the country.
