DLEAG registers landmark seizure of over 128,700 pills of ecstasy at airport
Operatives of the Drug Law Enforcement Agency, The Gambia (DLEAG) stationed at Banjul International Airport conducted a sting operation that resulted in the apprehension of one Saikou Krubally, a Gambian national holding a Spanish residential permit with one hundred and twenty-eight thousand, seven hundred and forty-five (128,745) pills of ecstasy that were concealed in three (3) 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.
Preliminary enquiry into the matter indicates that Mr. Krubally travelled from Barcelona to Amsterdam where he picked the said pills of ecstasy before continuing his journey to Banjul with SN Brussels Airlines via Brussels for a fee of ten thousand Euros (€10,000.00).
He is currently in custody while further investigations continue.
The seizure, one of the largest of its kind in the subregion, is part of several significant seizures registered by operatives at the Airport. Clearly, this is an indication of the Agency’s resolve to make the Airport an unattractive route to illicit drug traffickers and their patrons.
In December 2024, operatives conducted a two-months covert operation that resulted in the apprehension of three (3) Nigerian Nationals with forty thousand two hundred and twenty-seven (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 (47,078) pills of ecstasy. 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.
Within 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.
DLEAG management wishes to use this opportunity to once again reiterate its unreserved commitment, determination and dedication to abate the drug situation. In this regard, it calls on the public to join the bandwagon in the crusade on drugs by sharing information of suspicious drug related activities to the Agency as they cannot be everywhere, at every time.
SW/COB/03/02/25
