FRAGILE AFRICAN STATES NEED HELP IN DRUGS, CORRUPTION BATTLE

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 neighbouring 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.

Last 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
favours 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
neighbour 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.

Co-operation 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 co-operation is vital,
particularly intelligence-sharing.

Stronger legal co-operation 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
centre 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.