Guinea: Drug Trade 'Potentially More Dangerous Than Guinea-Bissau'
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
10 October 2008
Posted to the web 11 October 2008
Conakry
Guinea has become a major drug-trafficking hub and the trade there is now potentially more dangerous than in Guinea-Bissau, according to Antonio Mazzitelli, regional representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
"The [drug trafficking] situation is more complex and more dangerous now than in Guinea-Bissau based on the information we have," Mazzitelli told IRIN.
International drug traffickers from Colombia, Venezuela, Nigeria and Spain, among other countries, have moved their trade up the coast from Guinea-Bissau to Guinea after being driven out of Bissau because of increased government scrutiny, according to an official from the government's anti-narcotics bureau (OCAD) in the capital Conakry.
Though the amount of drugs trafficked through Guinea is unclear, OCAD's new head, Sakho Moussa Camara told IRIN over 1,000kg were seized in Guinea in 2007. He said the office has seized 7,499kg of drugs between 19 August and 15 September 2008.
Mazzittelli said it is difficult to specify the amount of drugs in transit or that are seized, and would confirm only that the UNODC knew of several drugs seizures in Guinea of approximately 150kg each in 2008.
Mazzitelli warned that the drugs trade could destabilise Guinea, which is prone to volatility and has been characterised by weak governance. "Drugs could be a trigger for further instability and could facilitate anarchy and individual abuses of whoever is in power, making any solution to potential political crisis difficult," he said.
Trafficking and related corruption hamper development by building up a get-rich-quick culture which quashes private initiatives aimed at building up sustainable investment, says Mazzittelli. Instead "it generates additional sources of revenue for a few people without creating any real wealth or jobs for the rest, which can hijack development in the country," Mazzittelli warned.
He added that drug trafficking fuels crime and engenders corruption at all levels of the administration. "[The trade] can contribute to tensions between different groups who will fight each other to get a larger share of the pie."
Rising tension between the police and army spilled over into open conflict in the capital, Conakry, in June 2008.
Another official at OCAD who asked not to be named, said corruption at the highest levels of the military and police and a lack of personnel and equipment are impeding OCAD's ability to crack down on drug trafficking.
Corruption
A senior official in the Guinean Ministry of Security who also asked to remain anonymous, said because of corruption traffickers are often released hours after their arrest and many drug caches disappear.
The official said this occurred in the case of Venezuelan and Colombian drug traffickers in May 2008, after they were arrested for storing large quantities of cocaine in Kipé, a Conakry suburb.
OCAD's Camara told IRIN,"I fight not only against drug traffickers, but also against some members of the Guinean police and military who are enriching themselves through drug trafficking." He continued, "You cannot imagine how deeply some drug barons are entrenched [here], in full view of law enforcers, and...protected by some senior officials."
...I fight...against members of the Guinean police and military who are enriching themselves through drug trafficking...
He said people involved in the drug industry have offered him large sums of money to stop his work. He added that OCAD has a list of 25 members of the military possibly implicated in drug trafficking.
Camara was appointed head of OCAD in August, one month after his predecessor stepped down in unclear circumstances.
Police and military officials told IRIN that a handful of people in their ranks who engage in illicit activities give the entire institutions a bad name.
"Not all police are mixed up in this drug-trafficking," Conde Mansa Mady, a head of the judicial section of the Kaloum police station in Guinea, said. "Here at our police station once we arrest a narco-trafficker the person is immediately sent to the central prison of Conakry."
A military officer who asked to remain anonymous told IRIN: "Certain among our military colleagues tarnish our name by trafficking drugs," He added, "We often go out with OCAD officials to provide reinforcement for them in their work."
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