A tide of blood money changing economies and balance of power in West Africa
Income from smuggling drugs and people into Europe is changing economies and the balance of power in West Africa. A UN agency says the region is in danger of becoming the new Mexico in terms of crime
The multimillion-dollar cocaine trade through West Africa into Europe, combined with human trafficking — and exacerbated by an influx of perhaps 20,000 weapons from the Libyan civil war — is threatening to turn West Africa into another Mexico, where drug wars have killed an estimated 120,000 people, the UN Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC) has warned. The smuggling routes from West Africa across the Sahara are as old as humanity and today facilitate a stream of untaxed cigarettes, contraband alcohol, stolen 4x4 vehicles, cellphones, laptops, cameras, arms, blood diamonds, real and faux medicines, and other high-value products. But it is the huge money to be made from smuggling narcotics and people that not only draws the attention of the better-armed and infinitely more dangerous crime cartels, but which has also led to interesting innovations in the eternal cat-and-mouse game with the authorities. The Guardian reported in 2008 that Guinea-Bissau had become the world’s first "narco-st...
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