Antananarivo — Madagascar is evolving into a major transit point for drug trafficking, an official has said.

Pastor Herisolo Ramandrosoa, the national coordinator of the anti-drugs and alcohol agency Malagasy Bleu Cross (CBM), said the island state was becoming an important destination for cocaine and heroin from other countries.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mauritius, Kenya and Guinea have been known to be other major transit points for drug traffickers.

"Cocaine, heroin and many other narcotic substances are imported, processed here and sent to other destinations afterwards," said Pastor Ramandrosoa.

Pastor Ramandrosoa's sentiments were corroborated by the police unit, Service central des stupéfiants et des substances psychotropes (SCSPS).

Drug trafficking remains one of the most lucrative businesses in both the developed and the developing countries.

Last week, Malagasy police arrested a 35-year-old man who had swallowed 64 pellets of cocaine, weighing 700g. He was from Mauritius.

The man, police said, confessed to being just a courier and was being paid $12,000 for the job.

He said someone else was supposed to receive the merchandise on his arrival in Antananarivo.

However, the local dealer took too long to turn up, making some of the pellets to burst in the courier's tummy, and necessitating an urgent operation at a private clinic to save his life.

The medical staff at the clinic alerted the police, who promptly arrested the 'patient'.

"It was the first time we seized such a great quantity of cocaine," head of SCSPS José Andrianasolo Rajaonarison, told the Africa Review.

Madagascar's anti-narcotics surveillance has been wanting in several ways.

The country, for instance, has no operational anti-drugs bureaus at the international airports and ports, as is the standard practice globally in states keen to fight the menace.