AFRICA/GUINEA – Guinea: a new African hub for cocaine destined to Europe?

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Conakry (Agenzia Fides) - Last year, one or two airplanes loaded with cocaine landed in the Republic of Guinea (Guinea Conakry) from Latin America every month. The drug load was then extradited to Europe by criminal organizations that have set foot in the West African country.
This was stated in a survey by Reuters Agency that reports the data published by the U.S. State Department Report on international drug trafficking in 2013, according to which from 2010 to present there has been an increase in the trafficking of cocaine passing through Guinea.
Guinea and neighboring Guinea-Bissau are the eastern terminus of the so-called "Highway 10", which roughly follows the 10th parallel. Almost half of the South American cocaine destined for Europe is believed to take this route.
So far the attention of anti-drug efforts had been focused on Guinea-Bissau, but the arrest, by the United States, of former Chief of Staff, Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, accused of being the main contact person of Latin American drug traffickers seem to have prompted the latter to move part of their activities in Guinea Conakry.
It is feared that the influx of criminal assets accentuate the scourge of corruption in a Country that is trying to make the most of its immense natural resources to improve the general living conditions of the population. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 04/02/2014)


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