Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 500, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Tel: (+43 1) 26060-0, Fax: (+43 1) 26060-5866, www.unodc.org COCAINE TRAFFICKING IN WEST AFRICA The threat to stability and development (with special reference to Guinea-Bissau) DECEMBER 2007 Printed in Slovakia Acknowledgements This report was prepared by the Research and Analysis Section and the Regional Office for Western and Central Africa of UNODC in the context of ‘Data for Africa’, the segment of UNODC’s Trends Monitoring and Analysis Programme dedicated to Africa and funded by France and Sweden. Research and drafting: Denis Destrebecq (Regional Monitoring Expert, Research and Analysis Section, based in Dakar) and Theodore Leggett (Research Expert, Research and Analysis Section), assisted by Phillip Sewing (Intern). Edited by Thibault le Pichon (Chief, Research and Analysis Section) and Antonio Mazzitelli (Representative, West and Central Africa Regional Office). Desktop publishing: Suzanne Kunnen (Research and Analysis Section). UNODC reiterates its appreciation to the African and European Member States who responded to the UNODC Annual Report Questionnaire on drugs. This questionnaire, together with the UNODC data base on individual drug seizures, constitutes the core source of information on which this report was built. Comments and feedbacks can be addressed to <[email protected]>. The boundaries, names and designations used in all maps in this report do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations This report has not been formally edited TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE........................................................................................................................................1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5 1. A PATTERN OF REMARKABLE SEIZURES ......................................................................7 2. WHY IS COCAINE BEING TRAFFICKED HERE?...........................................................11 POVERTY AND POLITICAL WEAKNESS ...................................................................................11 GUINEA BISSAU’S VULNERABILITY.........................................................................................12 NUMEROUS BUT POORLY RESOURCED POLICE IN GUINEA-BISSAU ...............................14 AN INEFFICIENT JUSTICE SYSTEM............................................................................................15 A DERELICT CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM ....................................................................................15 3. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING NOW?.....................................................................................17 SHIFT OF THE COCAINE MARKET FROM NORTH AMERICA TO EUROPE ........................17 HISTORIC ROLE OF WEST AFRICAN CRIME “NETWORKS” IN DRUG TRAFFICKING.....18 4. HOW IS IT BEING DONE? ....................................................................................................19 MARITIME SHIPMENTS ................................................................................................................19 AIR SHIPMENTS..............................................................................................................................19 SOUTH AMERICANS AND WEST AFRICANS: WHO CONTROLS THE TRADE?..................20 5. WHAT IS LIKELY TO BE THE IMPACT? .........................................................................23 SOCIAL IMPACT .............................................................................................................................23 ECONOMIC IMPACT ......................................................................................................................24 GOVERNANCE IMPACT ................................................................................................................29 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................33 ANNEX : PARTIES TO UN DRUGS AND CRIME CONVENTIONS ..................................35 Cocaine trafficking in West Africa PREFACE West Africa is under attack. With growing demand for cocaine in Europe, and improved security along traditional trafficking routes, criminals are now using West Africa as a hub for their illicit trade. Countries like Guinea Bissau are off most people’s radar screens. They are poor, weak, and yet not so unstable as to attract attention. This makes them a perfect cover for criminal groups. As a result, in the past few years, the amount of cocaine moving from South America via West Africa to Europe has risen dramatically. In some cases, like Guinea Bissau, the value of the of cocaine trafficked through the country may be greater than the entire national income. With their low risk/high return business, drug traffickers can afford satellite phones, move around in fast boats and expensive cars, transfer money and information discreetly and buy protection. The mismatched police, who have low salaries that are seldom paid, lack phones, computers, and even electricity, have almost no ships to patrol a rugged coastline, and little fuel for their few police cars. The air-space is particularly vulnerable. In a region already affected by poverty and pandemics, drug money is perverting fragile economies and rotting society. Using threats and bribes, drug traffickers are infiltrating state structures and operating with impunity. This is deepening fear and mistrust among and between senior officials and the public. There are also signs of drug addiction, adding a further tragedy to a region of Africa that has experienced so much turmoil in recent years. The security implications for countries like Guinea Bissau go to the very core of the state’s ability to maintain its sovereignty and integrity. There is a growing risk of some West African states being captured by foreign and local criminal networks colluding with senior officials, or even collapsing. While the situation is most acute in Guinea Bissau today, it could also develop somewhere else in the region tomorrow unless resolute steps are taken quickly. I welcome the attention that this issue is getting in the UN Security Council and among concerned donors. In the long term, Guinea Bissau needs development: greater amounts of aid provide the best safeguard. In the short-term, it needs urgent help to restore its sovereignty, for example through more effective patrolling of air, sea and land borders. Regional cooperation and international assistance are needed to provide the expertise, equipment, and information that can help Guinea Bissau and its neighbors detect illicit consignments, fight criminal networks, prevent money laundering, and bring traffickers to justice. Assistance in policing and counter-narcotics is badly needed. Security sector reform could increase the capacity of the military to restore order rather than abetting criminals. The backbone of the country’s legal system needs to be strengthened to better administer justice, build integrity and uphold the rule of law. At the moment the country’s legal system and its detention centers are in a sorry state. A few basics, like a financial intelligence unit, anti-corruption agency, modern prison, and better trained and paid judges could have a major impact. Europeans can help by curbing their appetite for cocaine that is the main driver of this problem. We cannot abandon Guinea Bissau to a fate of drugs and crime. By supporting courageous individuals, and bolstering key institutions, the country can be saved. There is still time to make the right choice. Antonio Maria Costa Executive Director United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 1 Cocaine trafficking in West Africa 2 Cocaine trafficking in West Africa EXECUTIVE SUMMARY • A declining US cocaine market and a rising European one appear to have prompted South American cocaine traffickers to make use of low-governance areas in West Africa as transit zones. Guinea-Bissau appears to be the epicentre of this phenomenon. • At least 33 tons of cocaine have been seized on route to Europe via West Africa since 2005. Prior to that time, the entire continent combined rarely seized a ton. • Most of this total was intercepted in just 23 large seizures, often accidental and partial seizures, indicating a much larger underlying flow. • Based on an analysis of seizures in Europe where the origin was known, it is estimated that some 27% (or some 40 tons)of the cocaine consumed annually in Europe is presently transiting West Africa. This amount is worth about US$ 1.8 billion at wholesale level. • The entire national budget of the government of Guinea-Bissau is just about equal to the wholesale value of 2.5 tons of cocaine in Europe. The estimated budget for law enforcement is worth less than some of the largest seizures of the past two years. Given current resource limitations, it is difficult to see how local police can compete with organisations collectively making hundreds of millions of dollars per year. • Even when arrested, international drug traffickers operating in West Africa are seldom sentenced. While West African cocaine peddlers are increasingly being arrested in Europe, there is no jail in Guinea-Bissau for international traffickers, mostly from Latin America, who handle multi-tons cocaine shipments. • The impact of this drug flow on parts of