What do international drug cartels love more than new guns and high street prices? That would be shoddily run nations with corrupt officials and little or no public law enforcement, like those you might find in equatorial Africa. Yes, drug thugs are taking over Africa, at least according to a news blurp making the rounds today, coughed up from an interview with DEA administrator Karen Tandy and other agents.
Lured by Europe's high demand for cocaine, the strength of the euro and lax law enforcement in poor African countries, Latin American drug gangs are "setting up shop" in Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau and Ivory Coast in the continent's west and Kenya in the east, Tandy and other DEA officials said in the interview.
Africa "has emerged as a drug hot spot, a hub, in just the last several years," she said.
In the case of cocaine, the drug is shipped ready-to-consume by boat to Africa and sent on to Europe by land, plane or ship, said Russell Benson, the DEA regional director for Europe and Africa.
Traffickers are also using traditional smuggling routes, with Spain as the main gateway for cocaine entering Europe. But Africa has become a tempting additional conduit because of its spotty law enforcement and porous borders.
"They are looking for a vulnerable spot," Benson said. "It is the path of least resistance."
I'm sure we're all familiar with the term narco-state, yes? Well let's have a little fun and define a narco-state as a third-world country with high poverty, little or no infrastructure, and little or no mineral wealth or trading power. What do these countries do? They make drugs. Cash crop to the world, drugs talk even where money can't. So really, can you blame these AIDS-, poverty-, and famine-stricken countries for courting easy narco dollars to get a little food in their bellies (or at least a few new luxury SUVs for their leaders)?
And, as a bonus, drugs turn cute little starving African kids into ruthless killing machines, so a rag-tag army of trained and well-armed addict-thugs is standing by and ready to take your mercenary orders today. Call 1-800-AFRICA-1 to fund your own private narco militia for only dollars a month. The children need you, and your local dealer is counting on you to keep prices of street narcotics at an all-time high.
