Drugs, Oil and Guns: A New Effort to Stop Illegal Trafficking in Africa
In West Africa, a new United Nations initiative aims to organize crime fighters against organized crime.
In addition to the flow of cocaine passing though West African coastal ports en route from Latin America to Europe, the region is home to black-market trades in counterfeit medicine, stolen oil, human beings and small arms, as well as the dumping of toxic and electronic wastes, according to a regional report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime this month.
Antonio Maria Costa, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime executive director, said at UN Headquarters that these diverse criminal activities all contribute to political and economic turmoil in West Africa. In each of the illicit industries identified in the threat assessment, he said, actors in countries outside the region are directly implicated.
"West Africa is under attack," Costa said.
Despite some signs of decline in the last year, the UN agency calculates the value of drugs trafficked through West Africa at $1 billion a year.
Black-market oil, either stolen directly from pipelines or diverted through corruption, is estimated to siphon another billion dollars off law-abiding economies.
Even the black market in cigarettes, estimated to provide as much as 80 percent of the cigarettes sold in some African nations, is said to profit criminals at the expense of potential tax revenue. The value of the trade is estimated at $774 million.
Experts say that organized international crime undermines democratic and economic institutions, peace and security and human rights.
International drug traffickers in particular have a close connection with political and organized violence, said James Cockayne, a senior associate at the International Peace Institute. He said that was why cocaine traffic still poses the greatest threat to the region.
"It connects local groups with international organized crime groups experienced in corruption, extortion and the use of violence," he said.
To help local governments address the perceived threat, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the United Nations Office for West Africa have teamed up with Interpol to propose a program for cooperative transnational law enforcement called the ECOWAS Regional Action Plan.
The plan's authors say that regional and international coordination is needed to combat sophisticated modern criminals in an increasingly interconnected world.
"The best way to fight these networks is with networks," said Andrew Hughes, the peacekeeping operations' police adviser, during a presentation of the proposal on July 10. He emphasized that the program, which is modeled after a similar effort in the Asia-Pacific region, is designed to have local ownership but global scope.
Transnational crime units, comprised of local law enforcement staff vetted by international police, would have access to the Interpol communications and information network, Hughes said, and be monitored and advised by crime experts from around the world.
The Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone are slated to participate in the initial efforts of the ECOWAS Regional Action Plan. The preliminary budget from the program totals just under $50 million.
Cockyane praised the ECOWAS action plan as "unprecedented and really forward looking," and "showing impressible levels of coordination."
The UN Security Council also commended the multiparty initiative. In a statement, the council reaffirmed "the importance of addressing the illicit drug trafficking and criminal activities by an approach of shared responsibility."
Cockyane said that more powerful countries like the United States are possibly becoming more willing to acknowledge the responsibility that consumer nations play in the drug trade. Traditionally, he said, antidrug efforts have focused on countries where the drugs are produced and transported.
"We may be seeing here the start of a very important shift in international drug policy," he said.
But he did offer one seemingly paradoxical concern for the ECOWAS action plan.
"If the initiative has any success," Cockayne said, "it will inevitably be targeted for corruption by the drug traffickers."
This story was originally published in the UNA-USA World Bulletin.
tagged with: drug trade, interpol, traficking, UN Police, UNA World Bulletin, United Nations, West Africa
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