The Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) has called for stronger and more practical cooperation among African countries to combat the growing threat of synthetic drugs, cocaine trafficking and transnational organised crime.
NACOC Director-General, Major-General Maxwell Obuba Mantey, said the increasingly complex nature of the illicit drug trade required countries to move beyond fragmented national responses and improve intelligence sharing, coordinated investigations and joint operations.
He made the call in Ghana’s statement at the closing 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 strengthen regional and sub-regional cooperation in tackling the illicit drug trade.
Major-General Mantey said trafficking networks were increasingly operating across several jurisdictions, moving synthetic drug precursors, cocaine and illicit financial flows through different countries while exploiting gaps in national enforcement systems.
He stressed that no country, regardless of the strength of its law enforcement and border security systems, could tackle transnational drug trafficking effectively on its own.
“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.
The NACOC Director-General proposed a “neighbour-to-neighbour” approach as a practical starting point for deeper regional cooperation, particularly through intelligence sharing, joint patrols and coordinated border management.
Major-General Mantey also referred to a high-level dialogue hosted in Accra in November 2025 on the future of drug markets in West Africa, which focused on synthetic drugs, cocaine trafficking, criminal money and strategic responses.
He said the concerns raised at the dialogue remained relevant, particularly the growing impact of synthetic drugs on young people and the potential for organised crime and illicit financial flows to undermine governance and state institutions.
He therefore called for regional cooperation that is practical, timely and operational, allowing intelligence gathered in one jurisdiction to be quickly shared and used to support investigations and enforcement action in another.
Major-General Mantey cautioned that the threats discussed at the HONLEA Africa meeting would not disappear with the conclusion of the gathering and urged participating countries to turn their commitments into concrete action.
“We look forward to reporting at the Thirty-fourth Meeting on progress, not promises,” he said.
The meeting was chaired by Ghana’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to Vienna, Matilda Alomatu Osei-Agyeman.