Kédougou: a Tapentadol trafficker arrested with more than 4,300 tablets

The Kédougou Regional Narcotics Brigade (BRS), a unit attached to the Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking (OCRTIS), arrested an individual suspected of running a psychotropic drug trafficking network in the Dinguessou district.

According to the National Police press release, the intervention followed “operational intelligence relating to the existence of a Tapentadol tablet trafficking network in the Dinguessou district of Kédougou”. BRS investigators then carried out investigations which led to the arrest of the suspect.

A seizure of several thousand tablets

The search made it possible to lay hands on a significant quantity of diverted pharmaceutical products: the suspect was “apprehended in possession of 4,300 Tapentadol “Royal” tablets”, specifies the Police. Tapentadol is a powerful opioid analgesic, the diversion of which for the purposes of illicit resale constitutes a phenomenon closely monitored by the Senegalese authorities, particularly in border regions such as Kédougou.

The suspect was taken into custody for three separate offenses:

– possession and transfer of psychotropic products,

– illicit sale of medicines,

– illegal exercise of the profession of pharmacist.

This combination of charges suggests that the individual operated a clandestine point of sale of medicines, outside of any legal pharmaceutical circuit.

OBN