WEST AFRICA IS UNDER ATTACK

The region has become a hub for cocaine smuggling from Latin America
to Europe.

States that we seldom hear about, such as Guinea-Bissau and
neighboring Guinea, are at risk of being captured by drug cartels in
collusion with corrupt forces in government and the military.

With the exception of cannabis in Morocco, Africa never used to have a
drug problem.

That has changed, however, in the past five years.

Around 50 tons of cocaine are being shipped from the Andean countries
to Europe via West Africa every year -- and that is a conservative
estimate. Actual amounts could be at least five times higher. The
volume seized is rising sharply: from 266 kilograms in 2003, to 3,161
in 2006, to 6,458 in 2007. This steep increase will no doubt continue.

This month alone, more than 600 kilos were seized in a plane with fake
Red Cross markings at the airport in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and at
the international airport in Bissau, several hundred boxes were
unloaded from a jet.

The profiteers in this illicit trade -- mostly but not only Latinos --
stand out on the streets of West African towns.

They drive luxury cars, buy up the best hotels and are building
haciendas and other opulent examples of ''narcotecture.''

Law enforcement has been helpless against this onslaught. Drug planes
don't have to fly below the radar, because in most cases there is no
radar (or electricity). Soldiers sometimes help smugglers by closing
airports and unloading the cargo.

Police cars run out of gas when giving chase or are left in the dust
by smugglers' all-terrain vehicles.

There are no local navies to intercept the ships coming from Latin
America or to chase the 2,000-horsepower boats that speed drugs up the
coast to Europe. Traffickers are seldom brought to trial; in some
cases, there are no prisons to put them in. Even when they are
charged, they are usually released because evidence is not collected
or needed laws are not in place.

Drugs have become a security issue.

Drug money is perverting the weak economies of the
region.

In some cases, the value of the drugs being trafficked is greater than
a country's national income.

The influence that this buys is rotting these fragile states;
traffickers are buying favors and protection from candidates in elections.

Quick intervention by the international community five years ago
prevented a crisis in Cape Verde, but the cartels merely shifted their
operations to Guinea-Bissau. Now Guinea is under threat; Guinea's
neighbor Sierra Leone could be next. Without a regional response, the
problem will move from country to country.

Containing this threat will not be easy. Poverty is the biggest
problem.

These countries are the worst performers on the human development
index -- their populations at the bottom of the ''bottom billion.''
Unemployed and desperate youths are vulnerable to being recruited as
foot soldiers for criminal groups.

West African countries must take control of their coasts and airspace.
This requires hardware (boats, planes and radar), know-how
(investigative techniques and container security) and
counter-narcotics intelligence. Some of these capabilities can be
developed nationally, but some assistance will have to come from abroad.

Cooperation among customs officials, border guards, the police and
counter-narcotics agents -- at ports and airports, for example -- has
made Cape Verde a less attractive transit point for drug traffickers.
The same approach should be adopted elsewhere.

Because the drug trade defies borders, regional cooperation is vital,
particularly intelligence-sharing. Stronger legal cooperation among
West African nations would enable more effective extradition, mutual
legal assistance and confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

Working contacts must also be strengthened between countries of origin
and destination, in South America and Europe, respectively.

In some cases, mechanisms for intelligence-sharing are under
construction. But measures, and even laws, to fight organized crime
and corruption will be meaningless without the political will and
capacity to implement them. Too often, drugs that are seized disappear
instead of being destroyed.

Judges, police and witnesses are intimidated. Security forces turn a
blind eye or lend a hand to smuggling.

The highest authorities must recognize the stakes. Their failure to
act is a sign of helplessness or complicity. Political will would be
strengthened if regional leaders were rewarded for their integrity and
punished for corruption. At the moment, the honest ones feel abandoned
and the crooked ones act with impunity. We must reduce vulnerability
to drugs and crime with greater development. And greater justice would
build faith in the rule of law.

West Africa's drug trafficking problem is still relatively small
compared with that of West Asia, the Caribbean or Latin America. But
it is growing exponentially and threatens to turn the region into a
center of lawlessness. Such instability is the last thing Africa needs.

The affected countries and the international community must act before
the situation spirals out of control.

Antonio Maria Costa is executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs
and Crime.