Remaining Wagner Group mercenaries build opioid-fueled criminal empire in Central African Republic
Remnants of the Russian mercenary group are running a tramadol trafficking operation in the Central African Republic that funds gold, timber, and arms operations beyond Moscow's direct control
Several hundred Wagner fighters remain based along the upper Oubangui River in the Central African Republic, where they run a drug trade built around tramadol, an opioid painkiller that becomes a potent stimulant at high doses. Miners at Wagner's gold operations use the drug to work long hours, while fighters take it in combat to suppress fear.
The trade has given Wagner renewed momentum since founder Yevgeny Prigozhin's death, with up to 500 members still controlling the region. Wagner earns an estimated 180 million dollars a year from illicit gold exports there.
A June 2026 report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime found that Wagner-linked and allied actors have become embedded in key government ministries, the security apparatus and customs administration. The report describes a system of criminalized governance in which coercion, regulation, and resource extraction have merged into a single structure tied to the presidency.
The report's findings include a government-backed fuel monopoly generating between 17.5 million and 30 million dollars annually in unjustified profits, and gold laundering through UAE-linked exporters using CAR-registered military cargo aircraft. Tramadol trafficking has tripled in price amid high demand, with senior security officials allegedly controlling the market.
The report also found that Wagner has conducted illegal transfers of military cargo aircraft to move arms and mercenaries, making the Central African Republic a logistics hub for Wagner operations elsewhere on the continent, a role that continues to support Russia's Africa Corps deployments in West Africa. It further noted that Wagner's aerial bombardment, combined with roadside explosives deployed by armed groups, is driving up civilian casualties.
Wagner-linked interests control the Ndassima mine, the country's largest, extracting roughly five metric tons of gold annually, worth up to 500 million dollars on international markets. Gold exports rose from 1.7 metric tons in 2023 to as much as seven metric tons by the end of 2025, a volume the report states exceeds artisanal production capacity and likely includes industrial gold from Wagner's own concessions.
A Wagner-aligned militia killed roughly 130 people in an attack on Fulani pastoralists near the Cameroon border in February of 2025, the deadliest attack on civilians since March 2022.