West African Coastal Fishermen become Drug Mules

29th July, 2008

Fishermen in Africa are increasingly turning to drug and people trafficking to boost their meager incomes as fish stocks dry up.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has said:

• large boats are heading from Latin America to African islands, where drugs are transferred into many smaller fishing boats which proceed along the coast to unload their cargo in the Gambia, Senegal and Guinea-Conakry.
• Guinea Bissau has increasingly become a transit hub for organised criminal networks trafficking drugs from Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil through West Africa to Europe.
• The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has said several hundred kilograms of cocaine go through the area each week.
• The Bijagos archipelago is said to be an ideal place for landing large quantities of cocaine, due to its geographical configuration, which makes it easy for boats to travel without detection.
• Apart from the drug trade, local fishermen say while they run at a loss when fishing, they can earn up to US$720 for each person trafficked northwards toward Europe.

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Guinea-Bissau's Arrests Two in a Money Laundering or or Drug Run

BISSAU, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's police are holding two Colombians after seizing weapons and a large sum of money in a raid on suspected drug-traffickers, a senior officer said on Monday.

Law enforcement experts say the tiny, poor West African state, a former Portuguese colony on the Atlantic coast, is increasingly being used by international drug cartels as a staging post to smuggle cocaine to Europe.

The senior officer, who asked not to be named, said guns, ammunition, grenades and large amounts of currency, including euros and the CFA francs used across much of West Africa, were confiscated in the raid last month that netted the two suspects.

"They are Colombians," the officer said, adding the two were being held on charges of illegally possessing arms and on suspicion of money laundering. The investigation was continuing. The two were arrested in the Bairro Militar neighbourhood of the country's crumbling capital Bissau.
Another police source identified one of the arrested men as the administrator of a local construction company.

Stung by international criticism that they are not doing enough to intercept tonnes of Colombian cocaine passing through to Europe, authorities in Guinea-Bissau have recently announced measures to counter the drugs trade.

Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Batista Tagme Na Wai said last week the military would shoot down any planes which entered Guinea-Bissau's airspace without permission.

ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS
Authorities say shipments of Colombian cocaine seized by local police are being flown in by small planes from Latin America to local bush airstrips. The drugs are then flown or shipped out of the country to Europe by the traffickers.

Na Wai said anti-aircraft batteries had been installed in the offshore Bijagos islands, whose jungles, beaches and mangrove creeks have been used by traffickers to set up clandestine airstrips and embarkation points.

International law enforcement officers say they fear corrupt government and military officers and members of the judiciary may be cooperating with the traffickers. Senior military commanders deny involvement in the drugs trade.

Last year, two suspected Colombian cocaine traffickers arrested in Guinea-Bissau's biggest drugs haul were allowed to walk when a local judge ordered their release with no clear legal explanation.

Drugs seized at the time, valued at $25 million, subsequently disappeared from the public treasury.

Since independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has known little but violence, political instability and poverty, its 1.5 million people surviving mostly by fishing and growing cashew nuts.

The Rest @ Reuters Africa

Guinea-Bissau Propmises to Shoot Down Drugs Planes

BISSAU, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's military will shoot down any aircraft that enters its airspace without permission as part of efforts to fight drug-trafficking by criminal gangs in the West African state, its top officer said.

Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Batista Tagme Na Wai promised a "crusade" against narcotics smuggling in the tiny, poor nation on the Atlantic coast, which experts say is used by drugs cartels as a staging post to smuggle cocaine to Europe.

Guinea-Bissau authorities say shipments of Colombian cocaine seized by local police have been flown in by small planes from Latin America to bush airstrips. The drugs are then flown or shipped out of the country to Europe by the traffickers.

"We will shoot down every plane that tries to violate our air space without previous permission from the authorities," Na Wai told reporters late on Thursday. He added stores of aircraft fuel used by drugs smugglers had been found and seized.

The general said anti-aircraft batteries had been installed in the offshore Bijagos islands, whose jungles, beaches and mangrove creeks have been used by traffickers to set up clandestine airstrips and embarkation points, drugs experts say.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies, which reports on the strength of armies around the world, lists the Guinea-Bissau military as possessing Russian-made anti-aircraft guns and SAM SA-7 ground-to-air missiles but it was not clear how many of these weapons were operational.

Guinea-Bissau's government, police and military have faced international criticism for not doing enough to combat the cocaine trafficking, but they say they do not have enough equipment and technology and have demanded more foreign aid.

In July, the country formally adopted the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as part of its efforts to crack down against the traffickers.

The Rest @ Reuters Africa