AFRICA/SENEGAL - Drug dealers organizations in West Africa are becoming more and more autonomous from the Colombian "narcos"

Dakar (Fides Service) - The drug trade that passes through West Africa is undergoing an evolution that could have very serious consequences for the region. This is what emerged from the meeting on the West Coast of Africa (WACI), which was held yesterday, June 21, in Dakar (Senegal). WACI, launched in 2009, sponsored by the United Nations for the fight against drugs and organized crime (UNODC), Interpol and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWS / ECOWAS), is to make front "to the growing problem of illegal trafficking, organized crime and drug abuse" in 4 states in the region: Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.
In recent years the amount of drugs seized in West Africa has decreased, but according to Alexander Schmidt, head of UNODC in the region, this figure reflects a better organization of drug dealers and not an increase in the efficiency of the security force.
Schmidt has expressed concern that West Africa will follow the same development as in Mexico, with local criminal organizations that gradually supplant Colombian drug dealers in the lucrative trafficking of cocaine from Latin America to Europe, through the African coast. If you think that the states in the region are very fragile, also because of the recent civil wars (the last, chronologically, in Côte d'Ivoire), one wonders what threat to regional stability represents the emergence of well organized criminals, with impressive economic means.
A local market for cocaine is being created. In fact, according to Schmidt, in 2010 13 tons of drugs were consumed in the region. To combat this, the experts stressed the importance of adopting strict measures against money laundering of illegal origin. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 22/06/2011)