Senegalese customs said Tuesday they had intercepted three shipments of cocaine with a total estimated value of more than $50 million in the past five days.

The authorities have made an increasing number of cocaine seizures in recent months from neighbouring countries -- notably Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Mali -- which are reputed to be transit zones for drugs produced in Latin America on their way to Europe.

In a statement on Tuesday, the police said they had intercepted a refrigerated lorry near the border with Mali.

"The search of the lorry revealed 264 packets of cocaine weighing a total of 306.24 kilogrammes, carefully concealed in a hiding place inside the ventilation compartment of the fridge," it said.

The value of the seizure is estimated at 24.53 billion CFA francs ($40 million).

The day before, customs officers in the south of the country carried out an operation on a vehicle from "a neighbouring country" driven "by an individual from a Sahel country", according to another statement published on Friday.

Customs officers discovered 95 packets of cocaine worth 8.7 billion CFA francs ($14.2 million).

Another seizure on Saturday at Blaise Diagne International Airport, near Dakar, led to the discovery of 18 kilogrammes of cocaine worth around 1.44 billion CFA francs ($2.3 million).

The drugs were in a suitcase that was part of a consignment of unaccompanied luggage "coming from a country bordering Senegal and bound for a European Union country".

Several seizures of cocaine have been announced by customs in recent months, including a one-tonne haul in mid-April in the east of the country, near the border with Mali, and several others earlier this month.

In November 2023, the army announced the seizure of nearly three tonnes of cocaine from a vessel seized in international waters off the coast of Senegal.