Africa is drugs hub - expert
2007-10-25 22:16
Dakar - Trafficking via west Africa of cocaine bound for Europe has increased sharply, going by unprecedented recent seizures off and on shore of the drug coming from south America.
"Unfortunately, less than one fifth of the drugs are seized," Amado Philip de Andres, deputy representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in west Africa, said on Thursday.
Since the start of the year, more than 12 tons of cocaine were seized, including 8.2 tons at sea and 3.8 tons overland, mainly in Senegal and its northern neighbour Mauritania.
Intercepted nearly seven tons
The month of October has broken all records, but regional experts say the hauls are just a fraction of the contraband making it through the porous and impoverished region of the world.
The estimated drugs pushed through the region amount to an astronomical 60 tons since January.
Spanish authorities have in the past three weeks intercepted nearly seven tons on two old Venezuelan fishing vessels headed towards Senegal, which is the closest to Venezuela across the Atlantic Ocean.
Spain, along with six other European nations, in mid-year assembled a joint anti-drug and monitoring force to police the vast waters of the Atlantic Ocean and fend off the drug tidal wave.
Based in Lisbon, the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre-Narcotics (MAOC-N), was formally inaugurated in September.
The countries involved in the scheme are Britain, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain.
Spanish police on October 19 intercepted a ship transporting 3.7 tons of cocaine near the coast of Senegal. Four suspects - two Ghanaians and two from Venezuela - were arrested.
Fishing boat had cocaine on board
According to Madrid, the 45-year-old ship was to unload its loot into several small speed boats for onward transportation to Spain, one of the main entry points of Latin American drugs into Europe.
On October 2, another record seizure was conducted relatively unnoticed. Spanish marine forces intercepted another booty, about 3.2 tons of cocaine on a Venezuelan fishing boat headed to west Africa, most likely Senegal.
Seven people - from Venezuela and Africa - were arrested.
Andres said last month that west Africa had become such a drugs hub that of all the drugs seized at European airports last year, 21% came from Africa.
- SAPA