One of the most frequently used trafficking method is to leave a suitcase at the airport's left luggage facility and not claim it back. A customs officer then discretely takes it away or it is shipped straight on to France for instance. The port of Dakar is an important transit hub for both Moroccan hashish arriving by road via Mauritania and southwest Asian hashish shipped by sea via East Africa. The latter gave rise to the seizure of about 30 metric tons on board a cargo ship 18 miles off Algeciras, in southern Spain, on November 18, 1993. The suspect ship, carrying corn containers, had been reported as soon as it left Dakar.
Spanish customs believe the cannabis had been loaded at sea from another ship.
The transit of hashish is controlled by international criminal organizations which only occasionally call on Senegalese traffickers, and the hashish trade thus has little fallout in Senegal itself. Drug trafficking networks very often bribe judges, and Senegalese law makes it hard to punish corrupt magistrates. But even when they are honest, magistrates are rarely aware of the dangers posed by drugs. Finally, the ordinary corruption displayed by some high officials does not encourage grassroots officers. Furthermore the Mourid moslem brotherhood is one of the main supporters of the ruling party.