Anti-drug police DLEAG yesterday said it has arrested a woman suspected of receiving and distributing 91 parcels of skunkweed and 1988 ecstasy tablets from her son in the United States.
The Agency said the seizure was made in a joint operation by its Sensitive Investigation Unit and Seaport Command last Saturday.
The Agency said a previous seizure of 15 parcels of skunkweed was made on Thursday 18 April from the same source.
”This breakthrough disrupted the criminal activities of a major Gambian skunk and ecstasy trafficking ring based in Atlanta, Georgia – USA. The sender of the drugs is identified as 32-year-old Musa Keita, a Gambian based in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America. Shipping records indicate that Musa has imported into the Gambia since early 2021 huge quantity of drugs in various consignments using unsuspecting container freight service providers. The boxes will often be labelled with fake names and telephone numbers and declared as food stuffs and medicaments for his mother,” DLEAG alleged in a press release yesterday.
The Agency alleged that Keita’s mother Hulay Touray, age 58 of Sukuta, would receive the boxes from the shipper and serve as the first line in the local distribution chain. “She is currently arrested and detained while Musa remains a fugitive in the United States of America,” DLEAG said.
The Agency said since COVID-19, ecstasy has become a ”drug of problem” for The Gambia as many young people particularly girls are into the abuse. “It is imperative for us to work together as concerned people to fight back the criminals at home and abroad involved in the trafficking of the drugs into the country. DLEAG stands ready to protect our society from the harms of drug abuse, while devising strategies to cater for the peculiar needs of victims of drug abuse – through rehabilitation programmes,” the statement concluded.
