Mauritanian gendarmes seized 370 kg of chanvre indien, cannabis resin known locally as “pierres marocaines”, from a truck coming from Morocco.[1] Gendarmes arrested two Moroccans who were in the truck at a checkpoint 55 km north of Nouadhibou.[1] The drug was hidden inside a metal box welded to the vehicle’s frame and covered by a load of about 28 tonnes of potatoes bound for the Mauritanian market.[1][2] The driver’s behaviour made the gendarmes suspicious and they deepened the search with sniffer dogs.[1] The drugs were found at the PK55 post, the first control point on Mauritanian territory after the border post with Morocco.[3][2]

Nouadhibou’s prosecutor’s office and the local gendarmerie gave the details on the Tuesday after the interception.[3] The publication said truckers carrying fruit and vegetables to Mauritania, Senegal and Mali also try to move drugs using contacts at the checkpoints.[3] Mauritania is not seen as a large hashish consuming market, but its porous borders offer transit opportunities to traffickers supplying Mali and Senegal, specialists say.[3] Mauritania is not considered a consumer market for the drug, the concern being how easily it could become a transit point given its borders of more than 5,000 km on land and 740 km at sea.[1] The Agencia de Presse Africaine (APA), the African Press Agency, covered the seizure for the news agency and reported it from a security source.[1]