THE Senegalese navy has seized 690 kg of cocaine being transported to Europe in an ultra-fast go-fast boat and arrested the five Spaniards on board, the army announced in a statement received by AFP on Sunday.
The deep-sea patrol boat intercepted the boat on Friday 220 km off the coast of Senegal.
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The patrol boat had to use verbal warnings and later warning shots to stop the boat, which had released its cargo before the intervention; 690 kg of cocaine were recovered, the statement said.
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On November 28 and December 16, the Senegalese army had announced seizures at sea of almost three tonnes of cocaine on each occasion.
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More than 800 kg of cocaine were also seized in January from a vessel off Dakar by the Senegalese navy.
Long considered a simple transit zone for drugs produced in Latin America en route to Europe, West and Central Africa has also become a region of heavy consumption, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

