Pressure is mounting on Sierra Leone's government after Spanish authorities seized more than 30 tonnes of cocaine in early May aboard a vessel that had departed from Freetown (the West African nation's capital) before being intercepted off the coast of Western Sahara. The country's parliamentary opposition leader, Abdul Kargbo, has written to President Julius Maada Bio warning that the government's lack of a proactive public response risks cementing Sierra Leone's international reputation as a potential narco-state. Authorities say they are taking the matter seriously and point to an ongoing investigation as the reason for declining further public comment, while the head of the national anti-drug unit deflected press questions toward the domestic crisis surrounding Kush, a synthetic drug said to have driven youth drug use up by more than 4,000% in the country.