The leader of the opposition in Parliament in Sierra Leone expressed his "deep concern" over several cases "linking" the country to "international drug trafficking and organized criminal networks," in an open letter to the president sent to AFP on Monday.

His open letter comes after the record seizure, on May 7, by Spanish police of 30 tons of cocaine worth 812 million euros, as well as "firearms", on board a ship flying the Comoros flag and sailing in the Atlantic Ocean.

The boat had departed from Freetown, the Sierra Leonean capital, and was sailing towards Benghazi in Libya. Among those arrested, 17 are Filipino nationals, five are Dutch, and the last is from Suriname.

For Abdulai Kargbo, leader of the APC, the main opposition party in Parliament, this affair "raises serious concerns about the flaws in (our) national security system and the possible infiltration of transnational criminal networks in (our) maritime corridors."

“International police services now seem to view Sierra Leone as an emerging logistics corridor within vast transnational drug trafficking networks,” Mr. Kargbo wrote in a letter to the country’s president, Julius Maada Bio.

Sierra Leonean authorities announced last Thursday that "investigations are underway" to "determine the full circumstances" of the record cocaine seizure.

The confirmed presence in Sierra Leone for over a year of Jos Leijdekkers, one of Europe's most wanted drug traffickers, has raised many questions about his links with the government.

Mr. Kargbo denounced the "persistent silence of the government" on these matters, reinforcing "suspicions that criminal networks could be operating with institutional protection or political influence."

Images showing Jos Leijdekkers in the company of senior officials of this West African country, including President Bio, have given rise to suspicions that the trafficker has become close to the Sierra Leonean political class, including the daughter of the head of state.

"This raises many questions, especially because this information comes at a time when persistent rumors suggest that Europe's most wanted drug lord is hiding in Sierra Leone, where he is allegedly married to a member of the presidential family," commented journalist Umaru Fofana on Facebook on Monday.

Nicknamed "Bolle Jos" ("Chubby Jos" in English), the Dutch trafficker is considered by Europol to be "one of the major players in the international cocaine trade".

The 34-year-old man was sentenced in his absence by a court in Rotterdam (Netherlands) in June 2024 to 24 years in prison for organizing the transport of nearly seven tons of cocaine and ordering a murder.

West Africa is "a region that serves as a relay for the international trafficking of cocaine between growing countries in Latin America and consuming countries in Europe," notes the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), a Swiss NGO.