ROGUE PLANES FLYING DRUGS ACROSS ATLANTIC

Al-Qaeda Links; Officials Worried Weapons Also Smuggled To Rebels

In early 2008, an official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
sent a report to his superiors detailing what he called "the most
significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since
9/11."

The document warned a growing fleet of rogue jet aircraft was
regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. On one end of the air
route, it said, are cocaine-producing areas in the Andes controlled by
the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the other are
some of West Africa's most unstable countries.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was ignored, and
the problem has since escalated into what security officials in
several countries describe as a global security threat.

The clandestine fleet has grown to include twin-engine turboprops,
executive jets and retired Boeing 727s that are flying multi-ton loads
of cocaine and possibly weapons to an area in Africa where factions of
al-Qaeda are believed to be facilitating the smuggling of drugs to
Europe, the officials say.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been held responsible for
car and suicide bombings in Algeria and Mauritania. Gunmen and bandits
with links to AQIM have also stepped up kidnap-pings of Europeans for
ransom, who are then passed on to AQIM factions seeking ransom payments.

The aircraft hopscotch across South American countries, picking up
tons of cocaine and jet fuel, officials say. They then soar across the
Atlantic to West Africa and the Sahel, where the drugs are funnelled
across the Sahara Desert and into Europe.

An examination of documents and interviews with officials in the
United States and three West African nations suggest at least 10 aircraft

have been discovered using this air route since 2006. Officials warn
many of these aircraft were detected purely by chance and the real
number involved in the networks is likely considerably higher.

Alexandre Schmidt, regional representative for West and Central Africa
for the UN Office on Drugs &Crime, said in Dakar this week the
aviation network has expanded in the past 12 months and now likely
includes several Boeing 727 aircraft.

"When you have this high capacity for transporting drugs into West
Africa, this means that you have the capacity to transport as well
other goods, so it is definitely a threat to security anywhere in the
world," Mr. Schmidt said.

The "other goods" officials are most worried about are weapons rebel
organizations can smuggle on the jet aircraft. A Boeing 727 can handle
up to 10 tonnes of cargo.

The U.S. official who wrote the report for Homeland Security said the
al-Qaeda connection was unclear at the time. He is a counter-narcotics
aviation expert who asked to remain anonymous as he is not authorized
to speak on the record. He said he was dismayed by the lack of
attention to the matter since he wrote the report.

"You've got an established terrorist connection on this side of the
Atlantic. Now on the Africa side you have the al-Qaeda connection and
it's extremely disturbing and a little bit mystifying that it's not
one of the top priorities of the government," he said.

"The bad guys have responded with their own aviation network that is
out there everyday flying loads and moving contraband, and the [U. S.]
government seems to be oblivious to it," the official said.

The upshot is that insurgent organizations -- including groups like
FARC and al-Qaeda -- have the "power to move people and material and
contraband anywhere around the world with a couple of fuel stops."

The lucrative drug trade is already having a deleterious impact on
West African nations. Local authorities say they are increasingly
outgunned and unable to stop the smugglers.

And significantly, many experts say, the drug trafficking is bringing
in huge revenues to groups that say they are part of al-Qaeda. It's
swelling not just their coffers but also their ranks as drug money is
becoming an effective recruiting tool in some of the world's most
desperately poor regions.

Barack Obama, the U.S. President, has chided his intelligence
officials for not pooling information "to connect those dots" to
prevent threats from being realized. But these dots, scattered across
two continents like flaring traces on a radar screen, remain largely
unconnected and the fleets themselves are still flying.