The Gulf of Guinea and West Africa: a new focal point?

[davidbfpo]

A commentary by RUSI, a general overview, with one new item (highlighted below) and ends on a rather pessimistic conclusion:

While the consequences of the Arab Spring and the spectre of terrorism has renewed the international community's interest in West Africa, and tackling organised crime in the region remains a priority for European member states, the increasingly visible crime-terror nexus points to a situation out of control.

The new item, with my emphasis:

Late last month, UK Border Force officials seized cocaine valued at over £17 million at the Port of Tilbury in Essex. While the value of the drugs is not the largest on record, what makes this particular seizure of interest is that the drugs are believed to have been smuggled via Senegal to Europe by an Al-Qa'ida affiliated group. If confirmed, this will be the first time an Islamist terrorist group has attempted to ship a considerable amount of Class A drugs directly to Europe from West Africa and is a significant step for Al-Qa'ida in the Maghreb (AQIM) in terms of both funding and operations. Officials believe the cocaine was part of a major deal between AQIM and FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) who provided cocaine in return for weapons the Islamist terrorist group had procured - possibly from Libya. The seizure of such a large volume of drugs suggests a transnational network not seen since FARC and the IRA collaborated in the early years of the last decade.

Link:http://www.rusi.org/analysis/comment...5193598A7994E/

No-one else appears to have considered the apparent linkage between AQIM & FARC - well in the public domain. Tilbury is one of the UK's busiest container ports, with not infrequent seizures before of cocaine. The method for this shipment was to put six holdalls atop a load of tin alloys from Senegal, with a tarpaulin over the container and cargo seals in place - a load in transit to Belgium:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-22251528