DGDA seizes 2,985 kg of cannabis bound for Macedonia at Kinshasa airport
Customs officers at N'djili airport in Kinshasa seized 476 cartons holding 2,985 kilograms of cannabis biomass that was about to be exported without a declaration. The DGDA named Instadose Pharma DRC SARL as exporter and said the firm had medical cannabis licences but no export authorisation.
🇨🇩 N'djili international airport, Kinshasa · DR Congo
Customs officers of the DGDA’s Kin-Aéro brigade seized 476 cartons of cannabis
biomass being readied for export without a declaration at N’djili international
airport in Kinshasa on 11 June 2021.[1]The lot weighed 2,985 kilograms, and
part of it was already on pallets for loading.[1]The shipment was bound for
Macedonia, which is now North Macedonia.[2]Le Phare reported that part of the
consignment was on pallets for loading aboard an Ethiopian Airways scheduled
flight.[2]
According to the DGDA’s seizure report, the export documents covered a larger
cargo of 169 packages weighing 21,832 kilograms, and the exporter was named as
the pharmaceutical firm Instadose Pharma DRC SARL.[1]The DGDA said the amount
that reached the airport was only part of a larger convoy intended for export.[1]The firm held two authorisations from the health ministry, one for
industrial cultivation and one for industrial production and marketing of
narcotics and psychotropic substances for medical purposes.[1]Because the
holders of the goods showed no export authorisation, customs drew up a formal
statement of customs offence.[1]AfricaNews RDC quoted DGDA Kin-Aéro deputy
director Levy Bwana Kitoko saying the two health ministry authorisations did not
give Instadose the right to export the cannabis biomass.[3]AfricaNews RDC
stated a price of about 17,000 US dollars per kilogram, without saying whose
estimate it was.[3]
The seized shipment was stored in the installations of the Bolloré customs
clearance area.[1]None of the accounts reports the arrest of an Instadose
Pharma DRC SARL official.[2]
Photos and video
Photograph published inside the Zoom Eco article on the DGDA Kin-Aéro seizure of 476 cartons of cannabis biomass at N'djili airport; the page gives no caption or credit naming what it shows. Photo: Zoom EcoPhoto details
The DGDA report describes a single cargo of 169 packages weighing 21,832 kilograms, but the accounts give the seized lot as 28 packages of 2,985 kilograms; only the 2,985 kilograms found at the airport is recorded as seized here.
The sources give no price attribution for the 17,000 US dollars per kilogram figure, so the value entry is per kilogram rather than a total.
The airport is described as N'djili by the sources; it is now known as Kinshasa N'djili international airport.
No arrest, charge or court outcome is reported for Instadose Pharma DRC SARL or its officials; only a customs offence report is mentioned.
The sources date the seizure to 11 June 2021, while AfricaNews RDC places the interception in the night of Thursday 10 to Friday 11 June 2021.
An AfricaNews RDC sentence appears to say the brigade forced the disputed cargo aboard an Ethiopian flight during a two-hour struggle, which conflicts with the seizure account; this detail is not used.
The route by which the cannabis biomass reached N'djili before the Macedonia-bound flight is not reported.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in AfricaNews RDC: AfricaNews RDC reported that an unidentified group attacked the Bolloré warehouse where the seized goods were stored, and that officers kept control of the cargo.
Security services incinerated at least five sacks of hemp seized from shops in Biakato, along with high-strength alcohol and expired goods, at a public ceremony at the local stadium on 7 October 2026; no sellers were named or arrested in the reports.
Security services intercepted 17 packages of cannabis at the SNCC freight yard in Mwene-Ditu on 4 September 2026 as they were about to leave by train toward Katanga. Mayor Gérard Tshibanda Kabwe watched them burned at city hall alongside urban security council members and SNCC officials.
On 16 December 2025 Kinshasa’s judicial police narcotics unit seized 56 sacks of cannabis hidden in a container during checks at Mitendi, west of the capital, and arrested suppliers with more sacks and kraft paper used for retail packs.
On 14 March 2025 police in Matadi arrested Mavambu Kitsofi, alias Muke Tonga, and FARDC adjutant Barumé Moïse during Operation Ndobo, seizing 10 sacks of cannabis and kraft paper rolls used for retail packaging.
