Ten cannabis bricks seized at Kayes wharf; carrier held
On 21 August 2026 customs officers at the Kayes wharf intercepted a national of an English-speaking West African country carrying ten bricks of cannabis. The authorities gave no weight or destination for the cannabis, and the companion flour and pasta seizure is excluded from cannabis figures.
Officers of the Goutioubé secondary customs office intercepted and held one
carrier at the Kayes river wharf.[1]The person held was described only as a
national of an English-speaking country in the sub-region.[1]Customs
announced seizures on 20 and 21 August in the Kayes region covering foodstuffs
without papers and ten bricks of cannabis.[1]
The carrier was transporting ten bricks of chanvre indien, literally Indian
hemp.[1]The authorities gave no weight for the drug and no destination.[1]In the separate 20 August operation at Diyala near Kayes, a Toyota Hilux was
stopped carrying 40 sacks of wheat flour totalling two tonnes and 15 cartons of
pasta weighing 150 kilograms.[1]
Kayes in western Mali borders Senegal, Mauritania and Guinea and is a strategic
point for trade and supply.[1]Customs linked the seizures to persistent
informal circuits on trade routes connecting Mali with neighbouring countries.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
No weight was published for the ten cannabis bricks, so no kilogram figure can be recorded.
No name or further identity was published for the carrier beyond being a national of an English-speaking sub-regional country, and no court outcome was reported.
21 August 2026 is used as the incident date because the cannabis interception is described as the day after the 20 August Diyala operation within seizures announced for 20 and 21 August.
Flour and pasta quantities in the same announcement are non-cannabis goods and are excluded from cannabis figures.
Only one accessible source for this event was found after searching, so no second account confirms it.
The text gives a weight ("150 kilograms") but the figures have no kg_seized; check whether it belongs there.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in APAnews - Agence de Presse Africaine: Customs said the food goods came from an unnamed neighbouring country, the driver showed no document justifying possession, and the vehicle and load were taken to brigade premises for customs procedure.
On the evening of 17 September 2026 Bamako’s mobile customs brigade stopped a goods truck at Sénou and seized 230 kg of cannabis hidden under plastic waste. The driver and his apprentice fled. Customs valued the load at 312 million CFA francs.
On 6 September 2026 Malian customs at the PK 11 post in Koutiala found 5.60 kg of cannabis and 4,000 tramadol tablets in a passenger's backpack on a bus from Yorosso to Bamako. The passenger, described as a pupil, was arrested.
On 25 July 2025 Mali’s customs intelligence service intercepted two freight trucks from a neighbouring country and seized 104 balls of cannabis hidden in fitted compartments. No official weight was announced and no arrests were reported in the accounts.
Police in Bamako's 12th arrondissement arrested a truck driver and one of his suppliers on 6 October 2020 at Titibougou, on the road to Koulikoro, after cannabis hidden in the truck's tyres spilled onto the roadside. Officers seized 122 kg of cannabis herb, which the accounts say was bound for Dakar.
