The Planes of Narco-traffickers
As Reuters reported late last month, it was about two years ago that a Department of Homeland Security official first brought “’the most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since 9/11’” to the attention of his supervisors. Yet since this time, the U.S. government has taken little to no action to abate the intercontinental narco-trafficking.
The report produced by the anonymous official described regular flights across the Atlantic between cocaine-producing lands in Latin America and unstable countries – home to militants, terrorists and anti-government rebels – in western Africa.
The aircraft hopscotch across South American countries, picking up tons of cocaine and jet fuel, officials say. They then soar across the Atlantic to West Africa and the Sahel, where the drugs are funneled across the Sahara Desert and into Europe.
Various fake documents, repainted tail numbers and vacated landing strips mask the planes’ illicit arrivals and departures, which go largely unnoticed. In the event the plane is detected, African governments are ill-equipped to handle the escalating problem. Lacking the adequate resources – including in many instances arms for every officer, police forces are often unable to track and arrest the perpetrators. And though the DEA has more offices abroad than any other American agency – 87 offices in 62 countries, only four are located in Africa.
What’s more, corruption abounds; bribes are traded often among traffickers and law enforcement. In Mexico, officials have for years permitted these planes to land at commercial airports. Increasingly this is a problem in African nations where the impoverished population is ripe for financial inducement; $9,000 to $11,000 for a single run is highly enticing for a people living on no more than $2,400 annually. In one incident, soldiers in Guinea Bissou blocked and threatened police forces attempting to intercept a delivery of $50 million in cocaine at Bissou airport.
And who is at the heart of this operation? Al Qaeda, its affiliate in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and FARC, presenting what is best described as “’an unholy alliance between South American narco-terrorists and Islamic extremists,”’ and whose arsenal has only gotten stronger. The Boeing 727s they have been known to operate serves as evidence of this. Their financial growth attracts a high level of recruits, and their surge in mobility and manpower is an obvious threat to U.S. – and international – security.
’The obvious huge concern is that you have a transportation system that is capable of transporting tons of cocaine from west to east,’ said the aviation specialist who wrote the Homeland Security report. ’But it’s reckless to assume that nothing is coming back, and when there’s terrorist organizations on either side of this pipeline, it should be a high priority to find out what is coming back on those airplanes.’
