The Gambia's Drug Trafficking Dilemma

Ndubuisi Ugah with agency

12 June 2010

analysis

Lagos — Before now, Guinea-Bissau was largely regarded as a nation wrecked by poverty, coups and political unrest. However, latest development reveal that the nation has become the cynosure of all eyes, courtesy of reports that two of its senior military officers were accused by the US of drug trafficking, thus raising concern over the vulnerability of African nations as exit points for Latin American cocaine traffickers to get their wares into Europe, writes Ndubuisi Ugah with agency reports

Over the years, the international community has always treated drug related incidences such as trafficking and abuse as a crime against humanity. This is because of the adverse consequences the illicit business has on the individual and the country at large. Predictably, this has made notable world organizations such as United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) and even African Union (AU) to regard nations seen as "drug havens" as potential threats to the society. Little wonder, therefore, that stringent sanctions are meted out to suc

h nation (s) found wanting in that regards.

But most disturbing, however, was the report during the week, which said the US accused two senior members of the Guinea-Bissau army of drug running. Though baffling, the report claimed that Air force Head Ibraima Papa Camara and former Navy Chief, Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto were named "drug kingpins", a development which has elicited widespread condemnation from within and outside the country. The accounts of the two men, reports said, have been frozen. The country, just last week, survived an apparent army coup attempt.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report monitored during the week, the two men risk financial sanctions from US, with a greater embargo on them not to transact any business deals with US citizens.

"Under the Drug Kingpin Act, financial sanctions have been imposed on the two men and US citizens are barred from doing business with them," the BBC report said.

This however, implies that Guinea-Bissau may have eventually become a major transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe.

Speaking on the issue, the Head of the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, Mr. Adam Szubin, said Camara and Na Tchuto have played "significant roles in international narcotics trafficking."

"Naming these two individuals as kingpins enables us to then target their facilitators, people who might be laundering money for them or assisting them in moving drugs," Szubin told the BBC's Focus on Africa program.

Before now, Na Tchuto was accused of plotting a 2008 coup and was due to be handed over to the government of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior for trial.

But last week, he emerged from a UN building in Bissau - where he had been taking refuge since December 2009 and joined an apparent coup attempt led by army Vice Chief of Staff, Gen Antonio Indjai.

During the unrest, soldiers entered the office of Gomes and detained him along with the army Chief of Staff, Gen Jose Zamora Induta.

It was gathered that the US fears were heightened because of the fact that the drugs trade may further destabilize the already volatile country.

"We certainly have noted with concern that the narcotics trafficking and the revenues from it play a destabilizing role, not only in Guinea-Bissau, but in other countries in West Africa and throughout the world," said Szubin.

Last week, 12 foreigners arrested in The Gambia last month, and whose capture aided a major drugs bust, were said to have appeared in court.

Their arrests, it was gathered, led to the discovery of at least two tons of cocaine with an estimated street value of $1bn (£686m), bound for Europe.

They were apprehended in May and faced drugs trafficking charges in relation to 3kg of cocaine. From all indications, West Africa may have become a major transit point for drugs trafficking because all the accused, who include Dutch and Venezuelan nationals as well as citizens of West African countries, pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.

While this may not be the best of time for Africa, especially with the AU summit coming up in Uganda, the drug incidence may create another serious concern for African leaders attending the summit to re-examine the drug issue once again with a view to finding a lasting solution to its effect on the African continent.

Investigations further revealed that government authorities are at a loss as to how to address the drug issue, when, according to some government officials, there seems to be no "standardized prisons" to sentence these drug barons, who have successfully made the drug business more lucrative courtesy of their "organized and ruthless" manner.

This, it was gathered, is the problem faced by the authorities in Guinea-Bissau, which some fear could be on its way to becoming Africa's first "narco-state".

It also gathered that Guinea-Bissau, apart from being the most glaring example of the increasing use of West Africa by Latin American cocaine traffickers to get their wares into Europe, is presently wrecked by poverty, coups, political unrest and has a coastline full of uninhabited islands, creeks and swamps, providing the perfect cover for smugglers.

The problems, the BBC report revealed, are illustrated by three incidents which would be hilarious, if they did not reveal how vulnerable poor states are to the quick hit of drug money.

In April, an estimated 2.5 metric tons of cocaine was flown into a military air-strip in Guinea-Bissau.

Two soldiers were arrested in cars packed with 635kg of the drug but the rest of the shipment got through, officials from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) believe, because the police did not have enough petrol in their cars to pursue the other traffickers.

Nevertheless, UNODC West Africa Head, Antonio Mazzitelli said the police officers involved were "heroes".

"They risked their lives, even though they had not been paid for three months at the time," he told the BBC News website.

Some senior officials, especially in the military, however, seem to have become involved in trafficking drugs.

In the second of Guinea-Bissau's comedy of errors, 674kg of cocaine, worth about $39m, or 13 per cent of the drugs which was put in the treasury vaults, for safe-keeping, reportedly "disappeared".

The then Prime Minister Aristides Gomes recently sought to allay fears the illicit consignment had returned to drug gangs, by saying that he had ordered it to be burnt. But Mazzitelli points out that there is no evidence that it was actually destroyed. The third incident took place in 2005. Local fishermen in Quinhamel, 30km west of Bissau, discovered strange packets of white powder floating in the sea.

With no idea of what the powder was, some used it to provide more flavor to their daily diet of rice and fish, while others thought it might help their crops grow and used it as fertilizer.

 Eventually, word got out to the traffickers, who turned up in the village to buy back what was left of their cargo after their boat had sunk.

"Drugs are not a priority for Africa - and never will be - unless the international community makes it one," he says.

Mazzitelli warned, however, that the inflow of the drugs money has a hugely corrupting influence on already weak states, which could end up as empty shells - cover for officials seeking to become rich.

He said if European countries want to stop cocaine reaching their streets via Africa, they must provide more funds to the police and judiciary - so police officers and judges are paid, they have enough petrol in their cars and prisons to lock up those convicted.

"Otherwise it is a lost battle," he warns.

 Culled from This Day newspaper-Nigeria.