The Director-General of the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), Major-General Maxwell Obuba Mantey, has called for stronger operational cooperation among African countries to confront the growing threat posed by synthetic drugs, cocaine trafficking and transnational organised crime.
He said the increasingly sophisticated nature of drug trafficking networks meant individual countries could no longer rely solely on their national enforcement systems to disrupt the trade.
Major-General Mantey made the call in Ghana’s statement at the close of the 33rd Meeting of Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies, Africa (HONLEA Africa), held in Vienna, Austria, from September 8 to 11, 2026.
The meeting brought together heads and representatives of African drug law enforcement agencies to consider ways of strengthening regional and subregional responses to the illicit drug trade.
Major-General Mantey said trafficking networks were exploiting differences and gaps between national jurisdictions, with synthetic drug precursors, cocaine and illicit financial flows moving through multiple countries.
He therefore called for intelligence obtained in one country to be quickly shared with authorities in another to support investigations and enforcement operations.
“Cooperation is therefore not a diplomatic courtesy to be affirmed in closing statements; it is the operational prerequisite for any of our national strategies to be successful,” he said.
According to the NACOC Director-General, a practical starting point should be stronger cooperation between neighbouring countries.
He proposed measures including intelligence sharing, joint patrols, coordinated investigations and integrated border-management arrangements.
He cited Ghana’s bilateral cooperation with neighbouring countries, as well as collaboration between The Gambia and Senegal, as examples of direct neighbour-to-neighbour cooperation that could provide a foundation for broader regional efforts.
Major-General Mantey also drew attention to the high-level dialogue held in Accra in November 2025 on the future of drug markets in West Africa, which examined the interconnected threats of synthetic drugs, cocaine trafficking, criminal money and illicit financial flows.
He said the issues raised at that meeting remained pressing, particularly the growing exposure of young people to synthetic drugs and the ability of organised crime networks and illicit financial flows to weaken governance and state institutions.
He urged African drug enforcement agencies to focus on cooperation that produces practical results rather than commitments that end with meetings.
Ghana, he said, remained committed to strengthening bilateral and regional partnerships and working with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and other member states to reinforce the collective response to drug trafficking.
“We look forward to reporting at the Thirty-fourth Meeting on progress, not promises,” Major-General Mantey said.
The meeting was chaired by Ghana’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Vienna, Matilda Alomatu Osei-Agyeman.
The Ghanaian delegation stressed that the changing nature of the drug threat required countries to work together across borders to identify, disrupt and dismantle trafficking networks.
