Freetown, 28th April 2026 — Sierra Leone has been identified as a key logistics and redistribution hub for cocaine trafficking in West Africa, with shipments frequently traced to Europe, particularly Antwerp and Brussels, according to the Enhancing Africa’s Response to Transnational Organized Crime (ENACT) 2025 Organized Crime Index.
The Organized Crime Index is a project by ENACT, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Institute for Security Studies, INTERPOL, and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
The report highlights that traffickers primarily exploit maritime routes, with inbound flows often carried on fishing vessels, pleasure craft, or bulk cargo ships, trans‑shipped in the Gulf of Guinea before landing along Sierra Leone’s porous coastline. Containers are also used to conceal exports to Europe.
Despite major seizures abroad linked to Sierra Leone, including in the UK and Belgium, the Index notes that no material seizures have been reported at Freetown Port in at least five years, a gap that raises concerns of political protection involving customs and senior figures.
This finding is corroborated by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI‑TOC) report, Cocaine Markets in West Africa: Mapping Impacts, Routes, Trends and Actors. GI‑TOC places Sierra Leone firmly within the “Western Hub” of coastal states alongside Guinea, Liberia, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea‑Bissau, and Cabo Verde increasingly exploited by traffickers moving multi‑tonne consignments from Latin America to Europe.
The Port of Freetown is mapped as a critical link in trafficking routes connecting Brazil’s Santos port, one of the world’s largest cocaine export hubs, to Europe. The Port of Antwerp in Belgium has reported some of the most significant seizures originating from Sierra Leone.
The ENACT report confirms that at least one major European kingpin has operated in Sierra Leone. Lebanese and Nigerian criminal networks dominate distribution, with Nigerian groups also manufacturing crack cocaine locally.
While heroin once had a significant market, consumption has dwindled due to high costs. Traffickers and users now favour cheaper alternatives.
Sierra Leone remains a source country for cannabis, with cultivation concentrated in Kambia District. Cannabis is smuggled into Guinea, then onward to Western Asia, Europe, and the US.
Although demand for cannabis has declined, the synthetic drug “kush” has surged since 2021. The report warns that kush, made from synthetic cannabinoids or nitazenes, is now the drug of choice among Sierra Leone’s youth. Its chemical components are imported from China, the Netherlands, and the UK, with final synthesis increasingly happening inside Sierra Leone.
Kush is also exported regionally, impacting Liberia, Guinea, and other West African states. Alongside kush, opioids such as tramadol and tapentadol (sourced from India and Pakistan) are widely consumed. Methamphetamine, known locally as “glady glady”, and MDMA are also growing in popularity.
The ENACT report points to law enforcement complicity in cannabis markets, with officers accepting bribes or reselling seized drugs. It also notes that no major cocaine seizures at Freetown Port in recent years suggest systemic protection for traffickers.
With Sierra Leone scoring 4.93 for criminality and 4.04 for resilience, the Index warns that the country’s justice system is struggling to contain organized crime. The combination of cocaine trafficking, synthetic drug addiction, and weak enforcement poses a direct threat to governance, public health, and regional security.
In summary, the ENACT 2025 Organized Crime Index reinforced by GI‑TOC’s mapping of Sierra Leone within West Africa’s “Western Hub” paints the country as a critical node in the global cocaine trade. With Freetown Port linked to Brazil’s Santos and Europe’s Antwerp, and domestic drug crises led by kush, the reports call for urgent reforms to strengthen enforcement, regulate synthetic drug imports, and break the cycle of complicity that has left Sierra Leone exposed.
