Mauritanian police seize 27 kg of cannabis at an El-Messellem checkpoint
Police intercepted 30 slabs of cannabis weighing 27 kg at the El-Messellem control post in Guidimakha wilaya on 19 November 2025, arresting a driver caught transporting the load from a neighbouring country. The Ghabou commissariat opened an inquiry.
Mauritanian police said they foiled a drug run after seizing 30 slabs of cannabis with a
total weight of 27 kg at the El-Messellem checkpoint in Guidimakha wilaya.[1][2]The
communiqué said the cargo had come from a neighbouring country and was bound for Mauritanian
territory.[1]
Officers arrested a suspect caught in flagrante delicto transporting the drugs, under the
coordination of the Guidimakha regional security directorate.[1]Mourassiloun reported that
Ghabou police commissariat staff carried out the stop and opened a deeper inquiry into the
case.[2]
La Dépêche said the Ghabou commissariat was investigating all branches of the affair.[1]Neither outlet named the driver or any further arrests.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Gendarmes at the PK55 border post in Dakhlet Nouadhibou found about 26 kg of cannabis resin hidden in a vehicle heading into Mauritania on 29 September 2026 and arrested two foreign nationals. The gendarmerie sealed the drug and began judicial proceedings against the two.
Police and gendarmerie units announced a run of raids in July and August 2026, breaking up at least ten networks and arresting dozens of people. The largest seizures were 202 kg of cannabis resin hidden in food shipments, 230 kg in a truck trailer at Bassiknou and 210 kg at Nouadhibou, alongside smaller amounts and thousands of psychotropic tablets.
Customs officers at Rosso, on Mauritania's border with Senegal, seized a large cannabis load from traffickers heading for Nouakchott, the customs service announced on Facebook. Customs released a video of the cannabis wrapped and hidden in plastic baskets, but gave no weight, count or arrests.
Mauritania's rapid-intervention gendarmerie stopped a car from Boghé 25 km east of Nouakchott and seized a large hidden cannabis load. The driver, the Boghé-based sender and the Nouakchott recipient were arrested.
