Hey MQDT:

I need not ask; for I know you will pardon my lack of response due to
binding obligations, to your countless rejoinders. I know you've been in
good company so I wouldn't regret much.

I shared this article because I believe it supports countless
speculations in that illicit drug trade in our part of the world is mostly
sanctioned by those running government machinery. I can safely predict that
the S'lone authorities will hit the hardest rock in trying to pursue this
issue further. Yes, it is funny how the timing worked out with Koroma in
Gambia for the flimsiest of all reasons and for the second time a month or
two??!

Jazaka A'llah Ya Masud.

-Laye

On 7/15/08, Haruna Darbo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
>
> What a professionally organised syndicate Laye. Tahnks for sharing. It is
> interesting how it all coincided with Koroma's visit to Gambia. I will be
> heading to arrest the owner of the Jeep dealership in Town. There couldn't
> be  many
> Jeep dealerships at this time in Freetown.
>
> Haruna.
> I encourage you to Goodsearch for The GLobal Democracy  Project
> Raise funds for your favourite charity by using _www.goodsearch.com_
> (http://www.goodsearch.com/)  - powered by  Yahoo
>
> In a message dated 7/15/2008 7:32:37 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> From  Awareness Times Newspaper in Freetown
>
> Breaking News
> Cocaine Plane  Impersonated the Red Cross:We have Lots of Exclusive Scoops
> Inside this  Edition including the hitherto unknown Cocaine Speedboat...!
> By
> Jul 15,  2008, 11:08
>
> *
>
> 48 hours on, mystery still surrounds the sudden  appearance of an
> unidentified airplane at the tarmac of the Lungi  International Airport. In
> the ensuing is a comprehensive report as filed in  by our Internet
> correspondents and our local reporters.
>
> The Plane with the fake Red Cross symbol on its wing and a  fake
> registration number of SQ2261 painted on its side
> *
>
> At about  3:30 a.m. of Sunday 13th July 2008 a small jet plane with a fake
> Red Cross  Sign is said to have forced its way onto the tarmac of
> the  Lungi
> International Airport allegedly without the permission of the
> Control  Tower.
> The plane was later identified as a Venezuelan registered  aircraft.
> *
>
> RED CROSS DISOWNS PLANE
> *
>
> In an exclusive  interview with the ICRC's Communications Head, Abu Bakarr
> Kamara, he told  this press that the ICRC is downrightly dismayed over the
> incident at Lungi  and would want the general public and the world to know
> that the plane in  question is not owed by the ICRC nor by the Sierra Leone
> Red Cross Society  (SLRCS).
> *
>
> APC MINISTER IMPLICATED
> *
>
> Meanwhile, in a  disturbing twist, the names of both Transport & Aviation
> Minister Hon.  Kemoh Sesay and his younger brother Ahmed Sesay (who is the
> Team Manager of  the National Football Team, Leone Stars) are being floated
> as having some  knowledge of the drugs dealing. Unconfirmed information as
> we
> went to press  is that Ahmed Sesay is being detained for questioning at the
> Police's  CID.
> *
>
> FORCED LANDING?
> *
>
> According to police sources, the  plane allegedly landed far away from the
> main terminal building in an area  known as Runway 3.0 at Kasongna Gate.
> Immediately the plane landed, the  crew members allegedly disembarked and
> boarded a waiting black jeep which  then forced its way out of the Airport
> by
> breaking a sealed gate in the  airport perimeter and driving through it.
>
> Security personnel were then  alerted who later forced the plane open and
> found 703.5kg of Cocaine  inside. When the police mounted a cordon search
> of
> the airport perimeter  area, they discovered five AK47 rifles in the
> possession of an ex combatant  named Ibrahim Kargbo.
> *
>
> 100 MILLION DOLLARS
> *
>
> According to  the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, a single gram of
> pure cocaine  was selling for around $140 last September 2007. Thus, the
> street value of  the 703kg of Cocaine that landed at Lungi Airport last
> Sunday is almost  $100,000,000 (One Hundred Million Dollars). This is a
> clear
> indication that  the operation is not a small one but one in which very
> senior members of  the Government and Security Agencies might be giving
> their
> blessings  to.
>
> "There is no way an international drug dealer is going to risk a  cache
> worth
> 100 million dollars landing into a country where he does not  have some
> serious high level connections and protection," a retired  Police
> Commissioner told Awareness Times. *DISAPPEARANCE OF ONE  BOX
> *
>
> Strengthening these allegations is the fact that after the  boxes had been
> offloaded from the plane, one of the boxes of cocaine simply  disappeared
> from right under the noses of the security  personnel.
> *
>
> VENEZUELA TO SALONE
> *
>
> Just a fortnight ago,  Investigative Journalist David Blair in Caracas,
> published in the Telegraph  Newspaper in London that a crucial change in
> the
> global pattern of  narcotics smuggling is now underway.
>
> According to Blair, in the past,  most narcotics from Columbia were
> smuggled
> directly to Europe but today the  cocaine is more likely to be loaded onto
> long-range aircraft and flown  across the Atlantic to small West African
> countries. Blair particularly  cited Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Sierra
> Leone,
> as key transit points where  the cocaine is offloaded before being shipped
> into  Europe.
>
> Venezuela's President Chavez is accused of fully backing these  operations.
> In 1998 - the last year before Mr. Chavez came to office -  Venezuela's
> security forces made 11,581 drug-related arrests. By 2005, this  had
> plummeted to only 1,082. It is also reported that last June 2007,  four
> smugglers were arrested at the main airport on Venezuela's
> Margarita  Island
> while loading 2.2 tons of cocaine onto an aircraft bound for Sierra  Leone.
> They did not expect to be caught because senior security operatives  had
> escorted them into the airport in Venezuela.
> *
>
> UMARU SITTA  TURAY
> *
>
> It will be recalled that local journalist Umaru Sitta Turay  had last year
> June 2007 strongly protested at a Police Briefing that he had  been an eye
> witness to a mystery helicopter that landed at the Choithram's  Hospital's
> Helicopter Pad from which it had offloaded strange items for  well over two
> hours. Sitta Turay had blasted the Police that despite him  making numerous
> calls for the police to investigate the mystery scene, not  a single police
> officer had turned up at the scene. According to Sitta  Turay, Hon. Kemoh
> Sesay and his younger brother, Ahmed Sesay had been  present during the
> offloading of this mystery helicopter at Hill Station  last June 2007 but
> the
> police turned a blind eye back  then.
> *
>
> INVESTIGATION ORDERED
> *
>
> Meanwhile, President  Koroma and his entourage landed at the Airport from
> an
> official visit to  the Gambia few hours after the incident. The President
> upon arrival  reportedly instructed that the investigation should be
> jointly
> conducted by  the local United Nations Mission and the Sierra Leone  Police
> (SLP).
>
> The immediate investigation set up is being headed on  the side of the SLP
> by
> Assistant Inspector General Francis Munu under whose  tireless leadership,
> arrests were effected that same Sunday. Initially,  three of the suspects
> were arrested and the other three were apparently  later intercepted in the
> Port Loko area. According to police sources, the  arrested Crew constituted
> two Mexicans, one American, one Venezuelan, two  Colombians and one Bissau
> Guinean.
>
> Sierra Leoneans presently helping  the police in their investigations are
> Chernor Bah, an air traffic  controller; Santos Bangura, Acting LUC Lungi
> Airport Police Station; O.C.  Hazeley also of the Lungi Police Station;
> Acting Managing Director Lungi  International Airport, Mr. John Brima and
> John Sesay, Acting Operations  Manager.
> *
>
> 'COCAINE SPEEDBOAT'
> *
>
> Special Investigations by  Awareness Times has revealed that at around
> 1:30am
> (two hours before the  plane forcibly landed at the airport), a mystery
> speedboat had crossed over  from Freetown into Lungi environs. The
> speedboat
> which contained six men  (Four white men and two Nigerians) missed its
> desired target which we have  learnt was the Landing Pad at Lungi Mahera
> used
> by the Diamond Hovercraft.  Awareness Times interviewed a fisherman who
> explained that his colleagues  and himself were awoken by the sound of the
> speedboat which had berthed a  distance from the Hovercraft Pad. These
> passengers explained they were lost  and requested for assistance. Speaking
> in Krio, the fisherman told  Awareness Times that after they were each paid
> ten thousand leones, they  took the speedboat to land at the Hovercraft
> site.
> He reveals that they met  a brand new jeep parked at the site in the pitch
> darkness and with two  white males sitting waiting. One male was described
> as
> "very  hefty".
>
> The fisherman's story was also corroborated by a driver of the  Hovercraft
> Bus which usually transports passengers from the landing pad to  the
> airport.
> The driver, Ibrahim Kamara, explained that his house was near  the landing
> pad and he heard the sound of the speedboat at around 1:30am.  Ibrahim said
> he was curious as the Hovercraft had finished operations for  that day and
> so
> he came out of his house and met local fishermen who had  brought the
> Nigerians and White men over in the lost  speedboat.
>
> Another eye witness to the scene is a local handyman named  Brima Bah who
> also confirmed to this newspaper's investigators that he was  woken up by
> the
> sound of the speedboat and came outside to see a brand new  jeep with
> plastic
> still covered on its seats, parked at the Hovercraft  landing pad.
>
> "I helped some of the strangers off the speedboat and they  all got into
> the
> jeep and drove off in the direction of the airport. It was  not yet 2am but
> it was past 1am," Bah explained to Awareness Times adding  that he was
> given
> Le10,000 for his assistance.
> *
>
> NIGERIAN WITH  €11,000
> *
>
> Meanwhile, a Nigerian national known as Ofodilay Chicozee  Chikeluba was
> arrested by the police on suspicion of being part of the drug  plane saga.
> According to the police, the Nigerian was in possession of  11,000 Euros
> suspected to be for use in the operation. However, whilst in  police
> custody
> (Chicozee), a Detective Police Constable, Musa Lansana who  was in charge
> of
> the suspect was seen in the company of the suspect in a  restaurant in
> town.
> Police have however re-arrested the suspect and Officer  Lansana has also
> been detained for further investigations.
>
>
> (c)  Copyright 2005, Freetown, Sierra  Leone.
>
> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
> To  unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
> Web  interface
> at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
>
> To  Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to:
> http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
> To contact the  List Management, please send an e-mail  to:
> [log in to unmask]
> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
>
>
>
>
> !
>
>
>
> **************Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live
> music
> scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com!
> (http://www.tourtracker.com?NCID=aolmus00050000000112)
>
> ���������������������������������������������������������¤
> To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
> Web interface
> at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
>
> To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to:
> http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
> To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
> [log in to unmask]
> ���������������������������������������������������������¤
>