Narco-ndrangheta: arrests in Ivory Coast
By Euronews • last update: 09/06/2019 - 16:46

There are also representatives of the Ndrangheta and the Camorra, among the 10 arrested in the context of an operation against drug trafficking conducted by the Ivory Coast police forces and which also involved police forces in France, Italy and Brasille. According to investigators, there would be this group behind the shipment of 1200 kilos of cocaine seized in September last year in the port of Santos, Brazil, and directed to Abdjan hidden in a container with construction equipment.

Later the cargo - bought in Latin America for 2.5 million euros but worth 250 million euros once it arrived in the drug markets - should have taken Europe's route and ended up in Calabria.

The operation, named "Spaghetti connection", was illustrated at a press conference at Abdjan. "The arrests were made last June 6," said Adorno Bonaventure, director of the Unit for Combating Transnational Organized Crime, "and involved 10 suspects: 6 Italians, one Franco-Turkish and three Ivorian citizens, among whom two women ". For Silvain Couè, a French liaison officer, "the stuff was destined for Ndrangheta and Camorra groups," with Italians residing in Ivory Coast for some time, at the origin of the traffic ".

This is the third major operation against drug trafficking completed in the Ivory Coast in less than three years. For at least 20 years, West African countries have become a privileged point of passage for cocaine loads departing from South America and heading for Europe.