By: Nicholas Bass
The DLEAG has disclosed that its agents have seized 128,745 pills of ecstasy at the Banjul International Airport.
According to the agency, narcotics officers stationed at the airport conducted a sting operation that resulted in the apprehension of one Saikou Krubally, a Gambian national, adding that Krubally had in his possession a Spanish residential permit. The agency reported that the ecstasy pills were concealed in three separate suitcases.
”The suspect, who arrived onboard SN Brussels Airlines, was monitored upon arrival and later arrested around Sukuta Traffic Light on the 2nd of February 2025 around 19:59 hours GMT onwards. The seizure is said to be one of the largest ever single seizure of ecstasy effected at an airport within the subregion,” DLEAG further reported.
The agency said preliminary enquiry into the matter indicates that Mr. Krubally travelled from Barcelona to Amsterdam, where he picked the said pills before continuing his journey to Banjul with SN Brussels Airlines via Brussels for a fee of ten thousand euros.
DLEAG also reported that: ”December 2024, operatives conducted a two-months covert operation that resulted in the apprehension of three Nigerian nationals with 40,227 tablets of ecstasy that was smuggled from India.
“In the same vein, DLEAG operatives alongside personnel of the Joint Airport Interdiction Task Force (JAITF) arrested a Gambian national who travelled from Germany to Banjul with SN Brussels Airline with ten packs of ecstasy containing a cumulative total of forty- Seven thousand and seventy-eight (47078) pills of Ecstasy,” the agency said.
“At the same time, operatives in September 2024 arrested a Gambian national who travelled from Switzerland and collected sixty (60) blocks of Moroccan Hashish that was intercepted at Banjul International Airport from a friend of his in Spain”.
DLEAG disclosed that in a span of three months, operatives stationed at the airport together with sister security services and aviation security personnel have seized more than two hundred and fifteen thousand pills of ecstasy and significant quantities of cocaine, Moroccan hashish, Skunk cannabis and other varying types of drugs.