[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 106 (Friday, July 29, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      DRUG TRAFFICKING IN WEST AFRICA--A GROWING SOURCE OF CONCERN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 29, 2005

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, in the aftermath of the G-8 summit, there 
has been much hope for the prospects of the African continent. While I 
too share in these hopeful sentiments I am well aware that we must 
remain vigilant in guarding against threats to the continent's 
development. A July 28th report from the San Diego Union Tribune 
entitled ``South American drug cartels lured to West Africa,'' is one 
of a number of recent reports which detail the increasing presence of 
narco-traffic in West Africa.
  Apparently, international drug cartels are increasingly using West 
Africa as a hub for drug shipments into Europe and North America. The 
political instability and inadequate government capacity which these 
countries experience provides the perfect environment for these cartels 
to operate. Even countries such as Ghana, which have been lauded for 
their good governance, will be challenged to dedicate resources to 
stopping this activity, when they have so many other issues to address.
  The increasing problem of African drug trafficking is just one more 
reason why the Bush Administration must keep its promise to 
significantly increase aid to Africa, as the stakes continue to grow.

           [From the San Diego Union Tribune, July 28, 2005]

            South American Drug Cartels Lured to West Africa

                          (By Nick Tattersall)

       Dakar.--South American drug cartels are moving their 
     logistics bases to West Africa, lured by lax policing in an 
     unstable region and the presence of small, underground 
     criminal groups, United Nations experts say.
       Drug cartels are increasingly using West Africa as a hub 
     for smuggling, working with criminal networks from the region 
     who market cannabis, cocaine and heroin in Europe and North 
     America, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime 
     (UNODC).
       ``If you look at recent seizures of cocaine, the biggest 
     are all linked to groups with operations on the West African 
     coast,'' Antonio Mazzitelli, head of UNODC's regional office 
     for West and Central Africa, told Reuters in an interview.
       Consignments of cocaine would mainly come in from Latin 
     America through the Cape Verde islands off the Atlantic 
     coast, or through Ghana, Nigeria and Togo, from where they 
     would be re-exported to markets including Spain, Portugal and 
     the United Kingdom.
       Spanish authorities seized nearly three tons of cocaine on 
     a Ghana-registered vessel in international waters off the 
     African coast just three days ago, arresting 12 Ghanaians, 
     four Koreans and two Spaniards.
       Spain said the traffickers had picked up the drugs in an 
     unidentified South American country and refuelled along the 
     African coast before setting off for Europe.
       Major shipments of heroin produced in southern Asia were 
     also transiting through West Africa, particularly Ivory 
     Coast, after being flown by air couriers from Kenya and 
     Ethiopia, UNODC said in a recent study on crime in Africa.


                             hard to crack

       West Africa is seen as an attractive transit centre for 
     international drug traffickers because the criminal networks 
     already in place around the region have proven notoriously 
     difficult for police and customs officers to break.
       Operating as flexible networks of individuals rather than 
     large-scale, hierarchical organizations, they can market 
     illicit products to diaspora populations in drug consuming 
     countries and recruit couriers among a cheap labor force 
     available at home.
       ``One of the reasons these networks can abandon traditional 
     command-and-control relations is that many of them are 
     grounded in a common ethnicity,'' UNODC said in its study.
       ``Betraying compatriots is not only in violation of deeply 
     ingrained values, it can result in exclusion from this vital 
     support base,'' it said.
       While war crimes prosecutors in Sierra Leone have said 
     international terrorists have used the West African diamond 
     trade to fund their operations, UNODC said no clear links had 
     been established to the drugs trade, though that could 
     change.
       ``This is the sort of environment within which organised 
     criminal and terrorist groups can grow. There are many well-
     proven cases of terrorist groups going hand in hand with drug 
     cartels,'' Mazzitelli said, taking Taliban fighters in 
     Afghanistan and rebel groups in Colombia as examples.
       ``In Spain the terror attack was financed if not entirely 
     then partially through drug trafficking,'' he said, referring 
     to bomb attacks which killed 191 people in packed rush hour 
     trains in Madrid in March 2004.
       Mindful of the threat posed by criminal groups operating 
     across borders, police forces around Africa have linked up to 
     a global satellite communication system run by Interpol which 
     is supposed to track fugitives and stolen goods.
       Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble told reporters in 
     Ghana this month that 31 African countries were now connected 
     to the system.

                          ____________________