FREETOWN (AFP) — Police in Sierra Leone said Monday they had arrested eight foreigners after finding a record haul of 600 kilos (1,322 pounds) of cocaine in an airplane bearing a fake Red Cross emblem.
Officers seized the haul at Freetown's international Lungi airport, north of the capital over the weekend.
They subsequently arrested seven foreign nationals -- three Colombians, two Mexicans, a Venezuelan national and a US citizen -- in a car six miles from the airport.
And on Monday they arrested an eight foreigner, described as being "of Cuban-American origin", together with a Sierra Leone national.
Early Sunday, a small white aircraft with a fake Red Cross emblem landed without authorisation and the two-man crew had left the northern apron of the airport in a jeep, said police spokesman Francis Munu.
"When police searched the aircraft, some 600 kilograms of cocaine were discovered along with gallons of fuel and several AK 47 and AK 48 rifles were discovered with 339 rounds of cartridges," he said.
Although the Sierra Leone authorities did not give a figure for the street value of the cocaine, experts here say it could be as high as 54 million dollars (33 million euros).
The seven men arrested over the weekend had knives, telescopes, compasses and a huge quantity of US dollars," a security officer involved in the arrest told AFP.
An unspecified number of Sierra Leoneans were also arrested, including several airport and airport police officials.
Police said the plane had come from Venezuela, which is an important exporter of cocaine shipments destined for Europe.
Information Minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo admitted that "the incident took the government unawares."
According to reporters in the north of Sierra Leone, close to the border with Guinea, police have stepped up surveillance and border patrols in the hope of catching more people linked to the drug trafficking ring.
"We have not questioned all the suspects yet as we are going all out after their counterparts whom we believe are Sierra Leoneans," police offical Oliver Somassa told AFP Monday.
President Ernest Koroma ordered "a thorough investigation to be undertaken by security agencies."
The seizure is a record for Sierra Leone and one of the biggest drugs hauls this year in West Africa -- an important transit point for drugs from South America destined for the European market.
"This is the largest consignment so far that has been seized," the director of the National Drug Control Agency Kandeh Bangura said.
In June last year the Venezuelan authorities seized 2.5 metric tonnes of cocaine on a small private plane also bound for Sierra Leone.
According to a recent United Nations report Sierra Leone is one of the countries used to smuggle drugs on to Europe.
"The country is a transit point because of its location as it is midway between South America and Europe," said Bangura.
The poor law-enforcement structure and corruption in countries such as Sierra Leone, which is struggling to rebuild after a bloody decade-long civil war (1991-2001), also makes it an attractive destination for drug traffickers, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a 2007 report.
Drugs seizures in Africa rose from less than one percent (of global seizures) over the 1998-2002 period to 15 percent in 2006, said the UNODC.
In 2007 around six tonnes of cocaine were seized in several important hauls in West Africa, including a seizure of 2.4 tonnes of cocaine in Senegal late June 2007.
In many cases there were South American nationals among those arrested in connection with the seizures.
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