Mauritanian customs seize cannabis bound for Nouakchott at Rosso border post
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.
A Mauritanian customs unit at the Rosso border post seized a large quantity of
cannabis from traffickers.[1]The customs service announced the operation on
its official Facebook page.[1]Customs said the seizure reflected the constant
vigilance and professional dedication of its officers posted at border posts.[1]
A video released by customs showed the cannabis rolled up and hidden in plastic
baskets.[1]
MADAR, a Nouakchott-based news agency, carried the same customs Facebook
announcement.[2]MADAR described the haul as Indian cannabis and said customs
qualified it as considerable.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
MADARfr.madar.mrFRLes douanes saisissent une quantité de cannabis indien à Rosso qu'elle a qualifiée de « considérée »
Open questions the AI reported
No weight, package count or value was published for the cannabis seized, so no quantity is recorded.
Neither article says whether anyone was arrested or detained; police custody was not reported.
The articles give no separate date for the seizure; 16 October 2025 is the publication date of all three accounts and is used as the incident date.
MADAR describes the load as 'cannabis indien' and quotes the customs post as calling the quantity 'considerable', without a figure.
The Cridem page is a reprint of the Sahara Médias report, so the three accounts rest on one customs Facebook statement; that statement itself could not be opened.
A separate 2025 interception of a large cannabis load on the Rosso–Nouakchott road by a national gendarmerie mobile brigade is a different operation and is not covered here.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Sahara Médias: The seized cannabis was to be sent on to Nouakchott.
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.
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.
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.
