Keypoints:
- Cocaine trafficking through West Africa is expanding rapidly
- Corruption is helping criminal networks deepen their reach
- Crack cocaine use is rising in several local markets
COCAINE trafficking through West Africa is expanding rapidly, fuelling corruption, organised crime and rising local drug use, according to new research published by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC). The findings suggest the region is now a major logistics and redistribution base for cocaine moving from Latin America to Europe, while the social and political costs are increasingly being felt at home.
The research says West Africa’s cocaine market has surged since 2019, with the region becoming a warehousing, redistribution and containerisation point in international trafficking routes. GI-TOC says the profits involved are now so large that the trade is undermining governance, with corruption acting as a more important enabler than outright violence in many countries.
Region emerging as key cocaine transit route
West Africa’s position between South America and Europe has made it a strategic stop on the cocaine pipeline. GI-TOC says at least one third of Europe’s cocaine is likely to be transiting through the region, and that the flow is still growing. The organisation also says some of the world’s most sophisticated organised crime groups are benefiting from the trade.
That trend fits with earlier reporting by Africa Briefing on rising drug addiction in West Africa, which noted that cocaine and heroin routes were spilling into local communities as fragile health systems struggled to cope. It also aligns with the Africa Organised Crime Index report, which found that cocaine markets had spiked across West, East and Southern Africa.
Corruption rather than violence
One of the report’s starkest findings is that corruption, rather than open warfare between cartels, is the key force helping cocaine trafficking thrive in West Africa. GI-TOC says state-embedded actors, foreign criminal players and regional intermediaries form a triangle coordinating bulk cocaine flows through the region.
That warning is especially relevant in fragile political environments. In Africa Briefing’s recent report on Guinea-Bissau, analysts warned that political volatility had again intersected with organised crime, with the cocaine trade appearing ‘more profitable than ever’. A separate GI-TOC analysis says European criminal networks have expanded operations in West Africa since 2019.
Crack use rises in local markets
The cocaine passing through West Africa is not leaving the region untouched. GI-TOC says consumption is expanding in many urban hubs, while RFI reported that growing volumes are also being consumed locally, including in the form of crack. Earlier INTERPOL and ENACT research likewise warned that traffickers are sometimes paid in kind, helping drive cocaine availability in transit countries and increasing the public health threat.
This fits with Africa Briefing’s own reporting on addiction pressures in countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, where rehabilitation capacity remains weak. It also adds to wider regional anxieties over instability, with recent Africa Briefing coverage of Mali and the Sahel warning that weak state presence across the corridor is creating broader security vulnerabilities.
Calls for a broader response
The emerging picture is not simply a policing story. GI-TOC says the drug markets now pose an urgent public health, security and human rights challenge, and argues that responses are falling behind the pace of change. That points to the need for a wider regional strategy combining anti-corruption measures, law enforcement cooperation and treatment services.
