Black Globalization: The West Africa-Europe Drug Trade
Good AP article:
Toughening in one state pushes market across borders:
Many confessed traffickers interviewed by The Associated Press said tightening security in Nigeria led them to move to other countries in the region where law enforcement is lax and officials more pliable. Favorite West African destinations for Nigerian drug gangs include Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Benin and Ivory Coast.
Tech layer on age old networks:
Once in West Africa, cocaine takes one of two main routes. It is either smuggled north through Morocco by fast boats into Spain — using long-established routes for hashish trafficking — or by air in smaller quantities by couriers using commercial flights into European cities.
International participants:
Nigerian gangs dominate the air routes to Europe, according to the UN report. Preferred couriers are European or North American passport-holders, such as the two British teenage girls recently convicted in Ghana of trying to board a flight to London with cocaine hidden in computer cases.
Global:
The major European destinations are Spain, the Netherlands and Britain. London has lately become favored because of the high price fetched on its streets, where a pound of cocaine is said to be worth about $14,500.
-Shlok
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