Washington Post: Guinea narcostate revealed in TV confessions - cocaine sent to Europe in the country's diplomatic pouch - by Rukmini Callimachi

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Guinea narcostate revealed in TV confessions - cocaine sent to Europe in the country's diplomatic pouch - by Rukmini Callimachi

As the people of Guinea sat transfixed before their TV sets, top government officials one after another confessed to their role in a lucrative international cocaine trade. Organized by a military junta that seized power three months ago, the confessions offer unprecedented insight into an exploding drug trade in West Africa, one that connects coca leaves grown in South American fields to cocaine users in European.

A recent United Nations report found that at least 46 tons of cocaine have been seized en route to Europe via West Africa since 2005, bringing profits that sometimes exceed the entire defense budgets of countries it passes through. Before that time, less than a ton a year was seized from the entire continent. "The vast majority of cocaine that is destined for Europe is now going through West Africa," said Michael Braun, who was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's operations chief when he retired in October. Note EU-Digest: Although there have been warnings about ongoing large drug shipments from South America via Africa to Europe for many months now, very little seems to be done on the European end of this criminal trade route. It is high time serious attention is given by the European political and judicial establishment to stop this exploding drug trade which has gotten totally out of hand.

Independent.ie: Crime - EU awash with drugs as 90pc of shipments get through - by Ralph Riegel

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EU awash with drugs as 90pc of shipments get through - by Ralph Riegel

An estimated nine out of every 10 drug shipments evade European customs and police detection. Despite the stunning success for the Irish authorities this week in the seizure of €675m of high-grade Colombian cocaine off the west Cork coast, the grim reality is that the drug is flooding onto European markets. The wholesale price of high-grade cocaine has plummeted from €130,000 to less than €80,000 per kilogram in the space of just four years -- while the number of cocaine addicts within the EU has doubled in seven years. Note EU-Digest: This is an unacceptable situation. Every EU member country is to blame for being lacks in the way they control the illegal import, sale and possession of addictive drugs which has become a major source of criminal activity. Member countries like the Netherlands which still provide legality to the use of drugs in various forms should be made to understand that what they thought to be a beneficial policy has now turned into a major criminal activity and needs to be cleaned up.

AP: Drugs Flowing to Europe Via West Africa - by Dulue Mbachu

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Drugs Flowing to Europe Via West Africa - by Dulue Mbachu

Since 2004, seizures of Europe-bound cocaine in Africa have risen fivefold, reaching a record 5.7 metric tons in the first nine months of last year, according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, or UNODC. Virtually all the drugs seized in Africa in the first nine months of 2007 came from West Africa, according to a U.N. report on drug trafficking. They include 2.4 metric tons seized in Senegal in June, 1.5 metric tons taken in Mauritania between May and August, and smaller quantities in Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Benin and Guinea.

Helsingin Sanomat - Most illegal drugs used in Finland pass through Helsinki region

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Most illegal drugs used in Finland pass through Helsinki region

Most of the illegal drugs sold in Finland pass through the Helsinki region en route to other parts of the country. According to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), drugs move in smaller quantities to other parts of Finland from wholesale suppliers in the Helsinki area. "Almost every larger drug case has linkages with the Helsinki region", says special investigator Tuija Hietaniemi of the NBI. Finland is a target country in the international drugs trade. The most common route to Finland for drugs goes through Estonia. Police estimate that at leat 90 per cent of the amphetamine on sale on the Finnish market comes from Estonia or passes through the country.

IHT: Euro becomes currency of choice for cocaine traffickers - Victoria Burnett

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Euro becomes currency of choice for cocaine traffickers - Victoria Burnett

MADRID: The euro has become the currency of choice for Latin American cocaine traffickers as the drug's popularity among Europeans has soared and the value of the currency against the dollar has risen, a top U.S. anti-narcotics official said Thursday. Karen Tandy, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that Europe's appetite for drugs was increasingly being supplied from West Africa, which has emerged with alarming speed as a major shipping hub for cocaine, heroin and synthetic drugs from all over the world.

In an interview in Madrid, where she was attending an international anti-narcotics conference held by the U.S. drug agency and the Spanish government, Tandy and other agency officials said cocaine traffickers had shifted their focus from the U.S. market toward Europe, which is gripped by a cocaine craze similar to that experienced in North America in the 1980s. Comment EU-Digest: "Action is required by the EU Commission and the member states."

Baltimore Sun/LA Times: Guinea Bissau: West Africa becomes a hub for cocaine traffic to Europe

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Guinea Bissau: West Africa becomes a hub for cocaine traffic to Europe

A landmark shift in trafficking routes has transformed West Africa into a hub for cocaine smuggling from South America to a booming European market, according to anti-drug officials on three continents. Drug traffickers have established a haven and transit area along the Gulf of Guinea to elude aggressive efforts to seize cocaine headed to Europe. Anti-drug officials fear the new route will worsen lawlessness in African countries already overwhelmed by crime, poverty and instability.

Colombian gangsters have brought their swagger to the tiny West African country of Guinea Bissau, setting up elaborate front companies, tooling around in flashy cars and allegedly buying high-level protection. The use of drug "mules" has increased sharply: A single flight arriving in Amsterdam from Morocco in December carried 32 West African passengers who had swallowed cocaine packets or concealed them in their luggage.