Customs seize 230 kg of cannabis from a truck at Sénou
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.
Around 22:00 on Thursday 17 September 2026, Bamako’s mobile intervention brigade of customs
stopped a goods truck at Sénou, on the edge of the capital, after a customs tip.[1][2]The truck
had come from a neighbouring country.[1][2]Under a load of plastic waste officers found 230
kilograms of cannabis: 282 bricks of skunk, 29 balls of kush and nine moulds of cannabis resin.[1][2]Customs estimated the value at 312 million CFA francs.[1][2]
The driver and his apprentice abandoned the vehicle and ran.[1][2]Director-general Cheickna Amala
Diallo, an inspector-general, was at the scene and praised the brigade.[2]He said the point of
the seizure was the protection of the population, especially young people, beyond the value of the
goods.[2]Malijet reported that the inquiry was still trying to identify the two men and the
supply network.[1]
Photos and video
A customs officer with packaged bricks, orange bundles marked kush and skunk, and tins, in a Douanes Maliennes photograph of the Sénou seizure.Photo details
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 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.
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.
