Dope from Venzuela to Guinea Bissau in Africa

Reuters/NY Times:

Anti-narcotics police in Guinea Bissau on Saturday arrested the three-man Venezuelan crew of an executive jet suspected of being used to smuggle cocaine into West Africa, an officer said.

The arrival of the Gulfstream jet at Bissau airport last weekend, having apparently come from Venezuela, had triggered a stand-off between police who wanted to search it and the army, which blocked access to the plane, diplomats said.

"Three Venezuelans are being held at the moment by the judicial police," counter-narcotics unit chief Sana Camara told Reuters, without giving further details.

Investigations into what they were flying into the tiny former Portuguese colony, an increasingly popular landing spot for the trans-Atlantic cocaine trade, would continue, he added.

International drug experts believe top officers in Guinea Bissau's various security services facilitate the passage of tonnes of cocaine through one of the world's poorest countries.

The United Nations said 6.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized in West Africa last year. Experts say the seizures represent a tiny percentage of what actually passed through the region.

"The plane landed a week ago. It seems some bags were taken out of the plane. The military set up a cordon to protect the operation," said one envoy, who asked not to be named.

"We suspect cocaine was onboard."

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It is not clear why they did not seize whatever was on the plane. I have had other post of the Venezuela connection to the dope rat line to Europe through Africa. This is the first that has resulted in an arrest..