Gambia and Mexico closer in drug woes

Sunday, 16 January 2011 20:51

Sunday Nation - Thousands of kilometres apart, Acapulco, Mexico, and Banjul, Gambia, have meagre in common. They only sit on the shores of two of the world’s oceans and boast of pristine beaches.
However, they were biting opposite ends of the same fruit the previous weekend: consequences of drugs trafficking. The tasting illustrates a lesson Mexico learned late and one Gambia has.
Mexican authorities announced 30 drugs-related deaths. Fifteen bodies lacked heads. Well, that’s just an anecdote in a four-year drugs war. Government forces are fighting drug cartels and cartels each other for turf and routes.
On Tuesday, Gambia announced security forces had seized a cocaine consignment valued at about $1 billion. The forces also seized “large quantities of cash and arms,” and 12 suspected traffickers.
President Yahya Jammeh, albeit a kin to tinhorn dictators, appeared to live up to his words. “I have double zero tolerance for drugs,” he said in March. Eleven senior officials had been arrested in a drugs probe.
Incidentally, last June authorities seized more than two tonnes of cocaine from a dilapidated hotel on an island off the Gambian coast. A Dutchman ran the hotel. He also owned a fishing company. The catch seemed to include non-aquatic items.
Like Gambia, Mexico doesn’t produce cocaine or heroin — it does marijuana and amphetamine. The two countries and others in West Africa share one exploitable misfortune: good transit from South America.
The transit is yet to cause African nations as much woes as it has caused Mexico, so far. Drug trafficking in Mexico is, inadvertently, courtesy of the United States.
In 1960s a whiff of marijuana, cocaine, LSD and other “mind expanding” drugs became recreational. Mexican cartels recognised a market and began smuggling marijuana and amphetamine.
South American lords, especially in Colombia, noticed and began shipping in cocaine et al, mainly through the Caribbean. The United States made that route less profitable.
The Southern Americans turned to Mexican networks in the United States. In 1971, former President Richard Nixon was declaring drug abuse “public enemy number one.”
Myopically, various governments in Mexico took no note. They didn’t even see that were it not for the United States help, drug lords would have taken over Colombia, for example.
Mexican politicians and other high officials joined the seemingly non-lethal gravy train. Mexico headed the Colombian way.
Four years ago, President Felipe Calderon assumed office and declared war on the cartels. He has reinforced police with 45,000 soldiers. As of December, the casualty figure stood at 31,970 dead.
Where does Africa fit in this? The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says drug mother ships from South America anchor off shore various West African countries.
Smaller vessels offload. It happens South American “investors” are buying hotels, warehouses, fishing companies, et al. Transit to Europe, only? Think again.
Late last month, police in Thailand raided a Bangkok neighbourhood called Nana’s Soi Africa. They were after drug traffickers from West Africa.
The traffickers pass through several African countries. That’s why Mr Jammeh’s tactics need takers. Otherwise, it’s going to be the Mexican way somewhere on the continent.
By the way, some African countries like Kenya are tasting the spill-over from the drugs transit.
Written by by CHEGE MBITIRU