Drug Trade: 'Middle East High' - Drug Trade Booms in Lebanon & Syria - by Boruch Shubert

As revealed in an exclusive report by the Daily Beast, Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, a region that stretches for approximately 75 miles from Mount Lebanon to the mountains next to the Syrian border, features a slew of marijuana plantations dotting the landscape.

And they have been doing better business than ever, because as the Syrian conflict drags on interminably, Lebanese hashish and marijuana growers are increasing their production along with their profits.  

While all the area authorities are aware of it, none of them seem to want to do anything to obstruct this trade, since the majority of these plantations are controlled by Hezbollah. “The police and the army can’t stop me even if they wanted to,” boasts a farmer working on a plantation in the vicinity of Baalbek, Hezbollah’s de facto capital.

Prior to the Syrian uprising, the Lebanese army routinely entered areas of the Bekaa Valley to destroy fields and crops in order to hamper drug trafficking. Extensive security operations of this nature have been made possible due to aid provided by the United States government to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). 

State Department records show that +the United States has sent over $1 billion since 2005, and since 2007 over $140 million have gone to the Internal Security Forces, who are tasked with keeping drug trafficking at bay.

But the situation has recently changed. Today, the limited resources of the LAF are deployed to patrol the permeable borders with Syria and control the chaotic security situation. “It is no secret to say that these networks [of hashish producers] are very well armed in order to protect their marijuana fields,” claims Ohannes Geukjan, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut.

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AFRICA - Guinea and Guinea-Bissau : Drug Trade: Money Laundering

There has been a surge in cocaine trafficking has transformed Guinea into West Africa's latest drug hot spot, jeopardizing President Alpha Conde's efforts to rebuild state institutions after a military coup and attract billion of dollars in mining investment.

Locals and Latin Americans long-accused of smuggling are operating freely in the country, some with high-level protection from within Conde's administration, according to Guinean and international law enforcement officials and internal police reports seen by Reuters.

A lack of government figures makes estimating volumes tricky, but a foreign security source said one or two planes landed each month last year, ferrying in cocaine from Latin America mostly for smuggling to Europe.
"Whatever the attitude of the head of state, it's clear that traffickers can operate in Guinea.

They have deep roots there," said Stephen Ellis, researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, in the Netherlands.

Ellis said drug money was having a corrosive effect on attempts by Conde's government to improve governance: "It's worrying because of the effects not just on the politics of Guinea, but the whole region."

A July 2013 report by Guinea's top anti-drugs agency, seen by Reuters, said traffickers were operating with protection of senior civilian, military and police officials. It said proceeds from the trade are laundered through various channels, including real estate, fishing companies and local mining operations.

Guinea and Guinea-Bissau are at the eastern end of "Highway 10", the nickname given by law enforcement officers for the 10th parallel north of the equator, the shortest route across the Atlantic, used by traffickers over the past decade to smuggle Latin American cocaine destined mainly for Europe.

United Nations experts estimated last year that some 20 tonnes of cocaine, mostly from Colombia and Venezuela, pass each year through West Africa, which became an attractive transit point as U.S. and European authorities cracked down on more direct routes.

"People are frightened to take the lid off Guinea," said one foreign official, who, like others interviewed for the story, declined to be identified. "Authorities know traffickers are there but are powerless to do anything. They need international help."

Part of the problem is that Col. Moussa Tiegboro Camara, Guinea's top anti-narcotics officer, has been accused of involvement in a massacre of protesters under the military junta in 2009, making it impossible for Western nations to cooperate with him.

At a conference in Abu Dhabi in November, Conde touted the country as "open for business" in a bid to woo Gulf investors. He won billions of dollars in mining investment.

Yet Conde faces a tough battle for re-election in 2015. He must also accomplish the delicate task of keeping in check the armed forces, implicated in trafficking.

"We are dealing with a government that lacks the most basic forms of governance ... If you are a narco, the conditions you would want are all here," said a second Western diplomat.

EU-Digest

South America: Suriname's president warns U.S. over interference

President Desi Bouterse :" a stained history"

Suriname's President Desi Bouterse warned on Tuesday that the U.S. ambassador may need to leave the country due to the alleged interference in the upcoming election.

The U.S. ambassador in Suriname will most likely get a warning letter from the government of Suriname on Feb. 26,in which he will be asked to defend himself, said Bouterse during a ceremony commemorating the Revolution Day.

"If the ambassador cannot properly defend himself,he may be asked to leave the country," he added.

According to Bouterse, the U.S. ambassador said and did things to avoid the coming election in Suriname because "the other president is not ready."

Bouterse said he is well aware of possible scenarios to influence the election results, but they do not worry him.

"No matter the election is held earlier or later,the opposition has no chance of winning. The president that the people of Suriname want will come to power," Bouterse noted.

He stressed that Suriname is not happy with interference from foreign countries in its national matters.

The general election for a new parliament and government in Suriname is scheduled to be held in May 2015, but the political battle has already broken out.

A member of the Suriname opposition party NPS commented: "the Americans will probably laugh at this - its like the movie called "the Mouse that roared"

EU-Digest

Mali: French Intervention Hits Drug Running

France's surprise intervention against Islamist fighters involved in lucrative drug-running in northern Mali has disrupted cocaine supply to Europe, analysts have said.

The former colonial power sent fighter jets and troops two months ago to eliminate al Qaeda-linked groups controlling the north of the country and threatening to move south towards the capital. The jihadist network in Mali has funded itself by taking foreign hostages, but also levying a tax on smugglers running drugs from Latin America to Europe.

Poverty and the lack of government presence in the vast desert has provided an ideal ground for smugglers.
Typically, the drugs are shipped to the Gulf of Guinea or flown in directly from countries including Venezuela into Mauritania or Mali, where they are stored and eventually taken overland to the Mediterranean's southern shores.

The route is known as "Highway 10" in reference to the 10th parallel, a line of latitude which cuts through Colombia and Venezuela at one end, Guinea and Nigeria at the other and just misses Mali.

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