A photo taken during a drug interception in the Indian Ocean. The United Nations 2026 Global Drug Report confirms a profound shift in global drug trafficking, marked by the rise of synthetic drugs and diversified routes. Madagascar increasingly appears as a strategic link in the Indian Ocean, at the crossroads of flows between Asia, Africa and Europe. Its geographical position, long perceived as peripheral, has become an asset for criminal networks seeking to bypass traditional surveillance routes. Recent operations in the Indian Ocean region illustrate this dynamic. In October 2025, more than one tonne of methamphetamine was intercepted at sea during a joint operation involving regional centers based notably in Madagascar and sister islands. A few months earlier, more than 1.5 tonnes of drugs, including heroin and methamphetamine, were seized in the western Indian Ocean.
Vulnerable
At the national level, recent cases confirm the existence of structured international networks transiting through the Great Island. These flows testify to the growing professionalization of traffickers, capable of exploiting logistical and institutional gaps. The global report also highlights the rapid expansion of synthetic drugs, easier to produce and transport. This evolution represents a major risk for Madagascar, whose maritime control capacities remain limited. It is also accompanied by a change in the nature of trafficking, less dependent on illicit crops and more rooted in clandestine industrial circuits. Once a simple transit zone, the country now sees an emerging local market, fueled by these new substances (such as rôrô proliferating in urban areas). This transition increases health and social risks, particularly among young people. The situation calls, on one hand, for urgent strengthening of surveillance and regional cooperation mechanisms and, on the other, for strengthening national drug control agencies... at least what remains of them after successive eliminations of entities initiated by the now-deposed government.