Guinea-Bissau - Drugs
Guinea-Bissau is a transit hub for cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe. The country’s lack of law enforcement capabilities, demonstrated susceptibility to corruption, porous borders, and convenient location provide an opportune environment for traffickers. Guinea-Bissau’s political system remains susceptible to and under the influence of narcotics traffickers. The complicity of government officials at all levels in this criminal activity inhibits a complete assessment and resolution of the problem.
West Africa is the closest point to drug growing and processing centers in South America, and its close proximity to southern Europe provides a natural gateway to European drug markets. Porous borders, inadequate law enforcement and corruption create a permissive environment for the drug trade. Language connections among Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau also contribute to the ease in which such trade may develop. US law enforcement officials estimate that in 2009, about one third of the cocaine destined for Europe passed through West Africa. According to the United Nations, Latin American cocaine is being stockpiled in some West African countries for future shipment to Europe.
About 40 percent of the cocaine trafficked to Europe transits through West Africa. Since law enforcement there is generally weak, under-resourced, and notoriously corrupt in almost all of the countries, these states can offer a series of safe havens where traffickers can operate with impunity. Even where police are able and willing to make arrests, convictions are rare and prison sentences even rarer. The power of traffickers has become pervasive in Guinea Bissau. Such areas serve as a natural magnet for other crime groups – whether trafficking in persons, firearms, or other contraband – and could eventually attract terrorist groups seeking to train and operate with minimal interference. Finally, there is clear evidence that Colombian cartels branched out and were operating on the ground in some of the West African states. This creates an additional source of income that strengthens the mother organizations back in South America.
In 2013, the United States labeled Guinea-Bissau as Africa’s first narco-state. The cohesion and effectiveness of the state itself remain very poor, despite modest efforts to initiate reforms. Corruption is a major concern and the judiciary has reportedly demonstrated a lack of integrity on a number of occasions. Many government offices, including the justice ministry, lack the basic resources, such as electricity, they require to function. The major sources of illicit funds are drug trafficking, illegal logging, and corruption. Real estate and investment in legitimate businesses serve as the most common forms of laundering.
Guinea-Bissau's lack of capacity to control its porous land, maritime and air borders and offshore territory, weak state structures, political instability, and widespread impunity expose the country as a safe haven for organized crime networks. Over the past years, Guinea-Bissau has been on top of the international agenda due to its highly unstable political situation and the observed increase in cocaine trafficking. Encouraging progress has recently been made by national authorities in breaking the political and institutional deadlock that has persisted in Guinea-Bissau, which has seen seven prime ministers appointed between August 2015 and December 2019.
If regional trends continue, it will not be the last West African nation to bear that moniker. Due to an unfortunate mix of location, culture, and history, West Africa is a growing hub within the international drug markets. Today, Guinea-Bissau is the center of that hub and its situation is worsening by the day. Nigerians are at the center of drug trafficking in Guinea-Bissau and are extremely well organized. There are lines that branch off of the Nigerians to approximately four or five gangs. Each of those gangs has a close affiliation with a government security unit.
Drug trafficking is widely recognized as one of the new threats to the political stability of the country. In recent years, Guinea-Bissau has become an important transit point for drug trafficking from Latin America to Europe. Guinea-Bissau has very limited law enforcement capacities, which jeopardize its actions to investigate, seize drugs and arrest and prosecute traffickers.
Drug-trafficking and organized crime in Guinea-Bissau have ramifications for both its economy and its politics and constitute a destabilizing factor for the sociopolitical fabric of the country. It poses a direct threat to the institutional order of the country and to the political and social structures in Guinea-Bissau. Therefore, it is crucial to not only cut off the flow of drugs through the country but also to cut off illicit financial flows by focusing on strengthening the prevention and deterrence capabilities of the country, as well as addressing corruption and controlling external financial flows linked to money-laundering. Tackling these problems successfully will strengthen the rule of law.
Drug trafficking poses a threat to stability when rivals fight for control of the market, trafficking proceeds finance activities of other violent actors (e.g., violent extremists or armed rebel groups), corruption eviscerates security institutions, or counternarcotics efforts threaten drug traffickers. Guinea-Bissau most clearly illustrates the threat posed by political elites fighting for control of the market.
The drug trade is largely believed to have at least partially motivated the double assassination of President Joao Bernardo Nino Vieira and Chief of Defense Staff General Batista Tagame Na Wai in March 2009 and the 2011 coup attempt by Bubo na Tchuto, a U.S. Department of Treasury-designated drug kingpin and former Head of the Navy.
The instability stemmed not from conflict between the government and a non-state actor but rather from the complicity in drug trafficking of senior government officials who fought for control of the sizeable trade within the state. High-level complicity presents a particularly difficult environment for development assistance to succeed in directly countering drug trafficking.
In Guinea-Bissau, the dominant military and limited civilian oversight over the security sector led to such high volumes of drug trafficking that senior officials in the Navy and the Air Force were designated drug kingpins by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
After the events of 01 April 2010 the Embassy of the United States continuef to be deeply concerned about the ongoing violations of the constitution, the rule of law, and the democratic principle of civil authority over the armed forces in Guinea-Bissau. The United States sharef with its partners in the international donor community a desire to support Guinea Bissau's security and defense reform process and the country’s economic development.
However, it would not be possible for Guinea-Bissau's international partners to support the security sector reform process unless it is clear that the armed forces respect the principle of civilian control of the armed forces, the rule of law, and democracy.
The continued unlawful detention of the legally nominated Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Admiral Jose Zamora Induta, as well as other officers and soldiers, by elements of the armed forces acting under orders from the Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Antonio Indjai and the failure of the Government to initiate any process to investigate these acts of insubordination and mutiny and to discipline those responsible called into question the Government's control of the armed forces. If Admiral Induta and others were alleged to have committed any crimes, the US urged the Government to ensure their rights to due process and other human rights are respected.
If the Government of Guinea-Bissau chose to name someone else as Armed Forces Chief of Staff, the US stated it was imperative that the person not be implicated in the events of April 1 and that he be someone who can regain the confidence of the international community by recommitting the armed forces to submitting to civilian control and implementing security sector reform.
In addition, the United States continued to be alarmed by indications that senior members of the armed forces as well as the civilian government were involved in narcotics trafficking. The U.S. Government hoped to work with the Government of Guinea-Bissau to root out the individuals in positions of authority who use their power and influence to facilitate narcotics trafficking. The designation by the U.S. Department of Treasury of Ibraima Papa Camará, the Air Force Chief of Staff, and Jose Américo Bubo Na Tchuto, the former Navy chief of Staff, as drug Kingpins is just one example of our efforts to do so; the Treasury Department has targeted these two individuals as kingpins due to their significant roles in international narcotics trafficking.
DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart and Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced April 18, 2013 the unsealing of charges against Antonio Indjai, the head of the Guinea-Bissau Armed Forces, for conspiring to provide aid to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de (the “FARC”), a South American paramilitary group long designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist (“FTO”), by storing FARC-owned cocaine in West Africa; conspiring to sell weapons, including surface-to-air missiles to be used to protect FARC cocaine processing operations in Colombia against U.S. military forces; and conspiring to import narcotics into the United States; Indjai has been the subject of a United Nations travel ban since May 2012 as a result of his alleged participation in the April 2012 coup d'état in Guinea-Bissau.
From his position atop the Guinea-Bissau military, Antonio Indjai conspired to use his power and authority to be a middleman and his country to be a way-station for people he believed to be terrorists and narco-traffickers so they could store, and ultimately transport narcotics to the United States, and procure surface-to-air missiles and other military-grade hardware to be used against United States troops. As with so many allegedly corrupt officials, he sold himself and use of his country for a price. The charges against Indjai, together with the recent arrests of his co-conspirators, have dismantled a network of alleged narco-terrorists.
During meetings in Guinea-Bissau beginning in June 2012, and continuing through at least mid-November 2012, Indjai, Mane, Sisse, Garavito-Garcia, and Perez-Garcia agreed to receive and store multi-ton shipments of FARC-owned cocaine in Guinea-Bissau. The defendants agreed to receive the cocaine off the coast of Guinea-Bissau, and to store the cocaine in storage houses there pending its eventual shipment to the United States, where it would be sold for the financial benefit of the FARC. The defendants further agreed that a portion of the cocaine would be used to pay Guinea-Bissau government officials, including Indjai, for providing safe passage for the cocaine through Guinea-Bissau. Also during those meetings, Indjai, Mane, Sisse, and Garavito-Garcia agreed to arrange to purchase weapons for the FARC, including surface-to-air missiles, by importing them into Guinea-Bissau for the nominal use of the Guinea-Bissau military when in fact they intended to provide the weapons to the FARC.
A destabilizing change of prime minister and other senior officials in August and September slowed the reform process begun after free and fair elections in 2014. Following the 2014 elections, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Integrated Peace-Building Office in Guinea-Bissau initiated Security Sector Reform programming, with some limited technical support from the United States. The European Union, Portugal, France, and Spain also began to deliver bilateral forms of assistance and cooperation in 2015. Brazil has maintained a police training and cooperation for many years.
Nevertheless, neither domestic nor international organizations collect data on the quantity of illegal drugs that pass-through Guinea-Bissau. The borders are porous and poorly controlled. The Port of Bissau has no meaningful security. Containers routinely enter and leave the country without inspection. Inadequate resources, high levels of corruption, and lack of professionalism among law enforcement and judicial authorities have hampered efforts to seize drug shipments and investigate drug trafficking. Law enforcement and judicial officers are involved in drug trafficking, as are elements of the military. Members of the customs service take money to allow passengers and articles to pass through border posts without inspection. Police routinely accept bribes during traffic stops. Government salaries are inadequate, further encouraging corruption at all levels.
UNODC reports that drug abuse is a growing problem in Guinea-Bissau, though still at a low level. No organization has conducted a systematic study of the problem to determine its scope; all assessments are based on anecdotal evidence. There are no government-funded treatment centers in Guinea-Bissau. The few operational centers are privately funded.
Malam Bacai Sanha Jr., 52, pleaded guilty Sept. 6, 2023, to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance for the purpose of unlawful importation. Malam Bacai Sanha Jr. wasn’t any ordinary international drug trafficke. He is the son of the former president of Guinea-Bissau and was trafficking drugs for a very specific reason - to fund a coup that would eventually lead him to the presidency of his native country where he planned to establish a drug regime. Sanha was a leader and organizer in the heroin trafficking conspiracy and was directly involved in its importation from Europe to the United States.
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