Deal 'properly' with drug plane
2008-07-24 09:46
Bissau - The United Nations urged Guinea Bissau on Wednesday to deal "properly" with the seizure of a jet and its Latin American crew suspected of trafficking drugs, adding that it was monitoring the case closely.
Although no drugs had been found, the world body said it was "concerned" at the jet's presence as diplomats said international narcotics experts were heading to support weak and ill-resourced local law enforcement officers in the tiny nation.
Latin American cocaine smugglers looking for new routes to Europe had taken advantage of the former Portuguese colony's long, jagged coastline and numerous islands off Africa's west coast to turn the country into a hub of the global trade.
International drug experts said the smugglers were aided by widespread corruption in the impoverished nation and senior officers in the security services facilitate the drug's transit.
Two planes seized at airport
Shola Omoregie, the head of the UN in Guinea Bissau, said: "We applaud the first measures taken by the government such as the seizure of the planes and the detention of some persons and encourage the authorities to handle this issue properly."
He said: "I would like to stress that the UN is monitoring very carefully this case and supports Guinea-Bissau in this new battle against drug trafficking and impunity," he added in a statement on Wednesday.
The Gulfstream jet arrived at Bissau airport on July 12 and was immediately seized by the army. It was one of two planes seized at Bissau's international airport last week.
Officers from the judicial police, which was meant to investigate the drugs trade, were not allowed to search the jet or another plane that ferried technicians to work on it.
Last weekend, the judicial police did, however, arrest the jet's three-man Venezuelan crew and the head of the air traffic control tower at the main airport.
Guinea Bissau 'weak, volatile state'
Some of the Latin American smugglers and their local accomplices arrested in seizures in the past had ended up escaping or being freed by a judiciary that analysts said was both weak and corrupt.
Diplomats said on Wednesday that international anti-narcotics agents had flown to Bissau to support the investigations.
Even before it attracted the interests of powerful international drugs networks, Guinea Bissau had long been a weak and volatile state, prone to coups and military rule.
The fear was now that progress made in recent years to stabilise the country, which was also attracting international investment and was due to hold parliamentary elections later this year, might be undone.
"From its side, the international community should enhance support for national and regional efforts to combat this scourge as stated by the Security Council," Omoregie said.