Nigeria: Drug cartels invade West African countries

September 26th, 2009

 

 

Abuja (Nigeria) — Colombian and Mexican drug cartels are expanding into West African countries, including Nigeria, working closely with local criminal gangs to carve out a staging area for an assault on the lucrative European market, CNN reported yesterday

At least nine top-tier Latin American drug cartels have established bases in 11 West African nations because there is "less law enforcement in West Africa," just as there is more profit in Europe than the United States. The U.N. report said about 1,000 tons of pure cocaine are produced each year, nearly 60 percent of which evades law enforcement interception and makes it to market, the report said. That's a wholesale global market of about $70 billion.

"West Africa is a smuggler's dream, suffering from a combination of factors that make the area particularly vulnerable. It is among the poorest and least stable regions in the world. Governments are weak and ineffective and officials are often corrupt, as a top Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) told the U.S. Senate.

West Africa also is particularly attractive to traffickers because it is near "the soft underbelly of Europe," said retired four-star Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who was drug policy director for President Clinton.

Geography plays another role because West Africa is fairly close to the three South American nations that produce nearly all of the world's cocaine -- Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Many of the shipments depart from Venezuela, which shares a 1,273-mile (2,050-kilometer) porous border with Colombia and is even closer to Africa.

 

source.Daily Trust (Nigeria)