By: Tristian McConnellWest Africa risks being thrown into new turmoil and conflict by the drug cartels, whose trade is often worth more than the economies of the countries in which they operate.
Africa-wide figures contained in a report published Thursday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime show that cocaine seizures have fallen from a record high of 5,500 tons in 2007 to only 956 tons in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. But fewer seizures doesn't necessarily mean fewer drugs are being trafficked.
"The role of West Africa in cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe might have decreased if judged from seizures only, but there are other indications that traffickers may have changed their tactics, and the area remains vulnerable to a resurgence in trafficking of cocaine," the U.N. report says.
Earlier this week Alexandre Schmidt, the U.N. organization's regional head, refused to be buoyed by the apparent fall in quantities of cocaine trafficked.
"It means there has been a repositioning of the drug routes and the drug traffickers have much more sophisticated means and they are using more routes," he told a conference in Dakar, Senegal.
Schmidt warned that cartels are probably using submarines to evade detection.
"We are not talking about military vessels here, but rather smaller ones which can be bought freely on the international market by anybody who has a couple of million dollars to spare," he said. A number of drug-smuggling submarines have been discovered in Latin America.
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