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| Gambia's Drug Squad destroys illicit drugs/PHOTO: Modou S. Joof |
Gambia’s National Drug Enforcement
Agency (NDEA) on Tuesday set ablaze 3 tonnes, 15 kilos and 47 grams of
cannabis, 8 kilos and 2 grams of cocaine, and 20 grams of heroin.
Held along the Old Cape Road on the
outskirts of the Town of Bakau on July 3, 2012, the agency said the exercise is
meant to show seriousness in the fight against illicit drugs.
It is customary that when drugs
cases have been successfully dealt with in courts, the agency would organise a
public drug destruction exercise, according to Dr Abubacarr Senghore, Chairman
of NDEA Board of Directors.
He said it is also demonstration of
the Gambia’s efforts to ensure the country is drug-free.
NDEA’S Executive Director, Benedict
Jammeh said Gambia as a nation has an uphill task in the fight against drugs.
These drugs (being destroyed) were not found in a foreign country. It was all
seized in The Gambia from citizens and non-citizens.
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| Gambia's Drug Squad destroys illicit drugs/PHOTO: Modou S. Joof |
This, according
to Jammeh, continues to be of grave concern in The Gambia, saying it compelled the
NDEA to wage a “persistent campaign” on all fronts to curb this social vice.
It is the duty of all of us to be
vigilant so that collectively we can wipe out drugs from the face of this
country, and for prosperity, he said in the presence international
representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Taiwan and the
World Health Organisation.
Allowing young people to peddle in
drugs and drug cartels to traffic in our neighborhoods is counter-productive
and dangerous, he added.
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| Cocaine bust, estimated to worth $1 billion, June 2010, Banjul. |
In 2010, the first public
manifestation of the Gambia becoming a transit point for cartels trafficking
drugs to Europe and South America, was the discovery of more than two tonnes of
cocaine (worth $1 billion) at Bonto, a village in the Kombo East District of
the West Coast Region.
On Tuesday, the NDEA executive
director told diplomats, security personnel and journalists the two tonnes of
cocaine is not being destroyed due to its huge concentration.
Its concentration is 85 per cent, it
is “too huge” to burn in an open air space, Benedict Jammeh said, while
explaining that the agency is working with its partners to procure an
incinerator for the destruction of the two tonnes of cocaine.
“Once the incinerator is available,
the public will be duly informed of the destruction of the two tonnes of
cocaine,” he said.
War on drugs failed
Written by Modou S. Joof
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