By Alberto Dabo
Bissau - Police in Guinea-Bissau seized 674kg of cocaine on Sunday in the tiny country's biggest drug haul and captured two suspected Venezuelan smugglers after a shoot-out, a top officer said.
Guinea-Bissau, with a population of less than 1.5-million, lies on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, a region drug enforcement officials say is increasingly used as a conduit for illegal narcotics destined for Europe.
The cocaine haul, with an estimated street value of 13.2-billion CFA francs, was the biggest quantity of drugs ever seized in Guinea-Bissau, Orlando Antonio Da Silva, director general of the judicial police, told reporters.
Police pursued two Venezuelans suspected of trafficking drugs as they drove from Bissau port to the populous Bairro Militar district of the capital, he said.
"After intense exchanges of fire, we managed to arrest them with their guns, including an AKM (assault rifle), an automatic pistol, a double-barrelled 12-bore shot gun as well as radios, phones and other equipment," Da Silva said.
With poorly monitored coastlines and ports, underfunded public institutions and widespread corruption, a number of West African countries are commonly used as transit points by international drug smuggling syndicates.
The United Nations Security Council noted in July "the prevalence of illegal narcotics trafficking in the coastal islands of Guinea-Bissau" and urged other countries to help the government tackle the problem.
Da Silva said police had spent two months tracking the smuggling operation before Sunday's bust.