Senegal finds 1.2 tonnes cocaine on deserted ship

DAKAR, June 29 (Reuters) Senegal captured 1.2 tonnes of cocaine on board a deserted sailing ship that drifted to a popular coastal resort, the biggest seizure of narcotics in the West African country, police said today.

Police discovered the boat, which apparently had a mechanical problem, on Wednesday at the Atlantic resort of Mbour, 70 km (45 miles) south of the capital Dakar.

The seizure comes amid concerns that impoverished West Africa, with its unguarded coastline and sparsely populated interior, is becoming a major trafficking route for Latin American drug runners into Europe.

''We found on June 27 in the morning 50 sacks of 24 kg each on board the boat,'' Captain Adama Gueye of the paramilitary police told Reuters.

Police found nobody aboard the vessel but confiscated commercial documents and a bank card from Guinea-Bissau, as well as two airline tickets from Rio de Janeiro to Bissau.

''Everything indicates that the yacht was coming from Guinea-Bissau,'' said Moussa Fall, of the investigation department of the paramilitary police in Dakar. ''The consignment was certainly headed to Europe or the United States.'' United Nations officials have expressed concern that former Portuguese colony Guinea-Bissau could become overrun by drug cartels, which its cash-strapped security forces are ill-equipped to tackle.

Guinea-Bissau President Joao Bernardo ''Nino'' Vieira created a commission in June to probe high-level government involvement in trafficking, following the disappearance late last year of 674 kg of cocaine held in a Treasury vault.

Former Prime Minister Aristides Gomes said yesterday the cocaine had been burnt on his orders and he denounced the opposition for manipulating the issue to topple him in March.

REUTERS RS KP2308