The Independent
Drug barons turn Bissau into Africa's first narco-state
By Jonathan Miller in Bissau
Published: 18 July 2007
Welcome to Africa's first narco-state, a country with just 1.5 million
people but a roaring drugs trade. Every day an estimated one tonne of pure
Colombian cocaine is thought to be transiting through the mainland's mangrove swamps
and the chain of islands that make up Guinea-Bissau, most of it en route to
Europe.
Western intelligence sources describe it as "the worst drugs trafficking
problem we've ever encountered on the [African] continent", and admit they have
been blind-sided by the sheer scale of it. "The more we learn, the more we're
shocked by the numbers involved. We've all been slow off the mark," said one
top US Drug Enforcement Agency official in Europe.
Conservative estimates suggest monthly cocaine trans-shipments through this
tiny former Portuguese colony on the West African coast are worth more than 10
times its gross annual national earnings, which mostly come from the export
of unprocessed cashew nuts. The World Bank ranks Guinea-Bissau as the fifth
poorest country in the world, yet flash cars with no plates brazenly cruise
the streets of the crumbling capital, Bissau.
Western narcotics and intelligence agencies believe that up to two small
twin-engine aircraft carrying up to 800kg of cocaine are landing on airstrips in
Guinea- Bissau every night, having crossed the Atlantic from South America.
The street value of a tonne of cocaine on the streets of European capitals is
roughly £50m.
From the mangrove swamps and inlets that line its 400-mile Atlantic coast,
and from an archipelago of 90 offshore islands, the cocaine is shipped
northwards. Some leaves by ship, hidden in timber or containers. Some goes by light
aircraft; some relies on the organised crime networks used to smuggle illegal
immigrants into Europe; and some is carried by "mules" .
Last week, the country's leading human rights advocate, Mario Sa Gomes,
launched a scathing attack on state complicity in drugs trafficking, which he
said was "threatening the dignity of the people of Guinea- Bissau and our
territorial integrity".
In a national radio broadcast, he said: "The quickest way to find a solution
is the immediate dismissal of the heads of the armed forces and the police."
Within an hour, an arrest warrant had been issued for Mr Gomes, who went
into hiding. Interior Ministry police repeatedly visited his family home. His
father, Jean Gomes, said: "I am worried because I think if they catch him they
will kill him." We later interviewed Mario Sa Gomes in secret. He said: "What
I say is true; everybody knows that in Guinea- Bissau the power is with the
military. This is an international war we are fighting. We need protection."
He said that he knew he was risking his life by speaking out.
And if the size of recent cocaine seizures by police in Senegal are anything
to go by, the tonnage getting through must be enormous if, as enforcement
officials say, the drugs being intercepted represent only a small proportion of
the total.
The most frequent visa stamp to appear in passports recently seized in
Senegal from three Colombians was that of Guinea- Bissau. An identity card, found
with the passports, provided one Colombian with residency in Guinea- Bissau.
It was issued by the Ministry of the Interior.
Guinea-Bissau's Interior Minister, Major Baciro Dabo, and the head of the
navy, Jose Americo Bubu Na Tchutu, are alleged by multiple sources to be key
facilitators of the trade.
The Interior Minister denies that his country is the newest narco-state, and
the navy chief says he is not involved in any drugs trade.
"I just sit there waiting for evidence," Admiral Na Tchutu said. " Whether
today, tomorrow or in a thousand years, I will never be a drugs trafficker."
The emergence of the cocaine trade in west Africa is the subject of an
exclusive report for Channel 4 News, to be broadcast tonight at 7pm
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