Mali mainly, 2012 coup, drugs & more

[ganulv]

I’ve avoided participating in this forum after a number of my previous postings involved a high posturing to information exchange ratio but since this involves Burkina I’ll bite. I may well end up regretting it, but here goes.

How I know: My better half likely knows more about Burkina Faso than any American citizen who does not hold a security clearance. I spent five weeks with her there last summer, mostly in Bobo with a few days immediately after arrival and prior to departure in Ouaga. I also read a lot.

In my short time there I observed nothing that looked like evidence of any domestic drug trade. On the one hand, why should I given my horrible French and the briefness of my visit. On the other hand, I have some knowledge of how drug dealing works at the street level (if anyone is dying to know how I came about that knowledge PM me) and I didn’t see any signs of it. Mind you, this is almost all in Bobo. I did see some prostitutes during my few days in Ouaga so the crime situation there is almost certainly different.

But as the linked article points out, you have to go through Burkina if you want to get anything that came off a ship in Ghana to Mali without a (more) circuitous route so a traffic in cocaine is plausible. I was in on a couple of conversations with Burkinabé regarding the mechanics of stealing, shipping, and fencing stolen scooters. Can’t recall the particulars, and all it proves is that there are criminal networks in the region, not that they are moving drugs and/or affiliated to international terror networks. But it does go to plausibility.

I don’t know more than the average man in the street about al-Qaeda—actually, and rather distressingly given al-Qaeda’s prominence in American political discourse, I know far more than the average man in the street about al-Qaeda, I just know very little indeed—nor do I know much about how intelligence work is done, but I have to wonder if any supposed chatter about al-Qaeda in the Sahel isn’t from time to time put into circulation by private firms looking to hire out to the U.S. Government rather than from federal employees.* Burkina Faso does have a tiny military, but outside of Ouaga it is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else and a non-West African African would stick out, not to mention someone from anywhere else. Which is to say that even a black Yemeni can’t expect to blend in there.† Anecdotally, there does seem to be some surveillance for international terror types. I spent a few hours of one afternoon in successive army and gendarme custody after trespassing onto a military base (but really, when there are no fences or signs how are foreigners supposed to know? as the gendarme pointed out to the sergeant who hauled me to the gendarmerie, right before adding, “Like I say every time you bring another one down here.”). After the incident one of my Burkinabé friends said words to the effect of “You never had anything to worry about. Now, if you had been an Arab…” While reading up prior to my visit I found a couple of blurbs about an international military training in Ouaga a couple of months prior to my arrival which I would assume implies a continued U.S. engagement with Burkinabé security forces at some level.

All of the above should be viewed in light of the face that I was in Burkina Faso prior to the winter and spring military and political changes in fortune in Côte d'Ivoire and the recent unrest in Burkina itself.

*I’m not implying any nasty corporate intrigue. But someone looking to pick up a federal contract might from time to time give a talk or interview suggesting this or that with the knowledge that it is going to be picked up in some form by a journalist on a deadline.

†I am not saying there (are or) are not real concerns regarding an al-Qaeda presence in Burkina Faso. I mean, if I were in a position to know that why would I be discussing it on this forum? I’m just saying that any suggestions regarding terror networks in Burkina needs to be viewed in light of certain constraints.

[bourbon]

In my short time there I observed nothing that looked like evidence of any domestic drug trade. On the one hand, why should I given my horrible French and the briefness of my visit. On the other hand, I have some knowledge of how drug dealing works at the street level (if anyone is dying to know how I came about that knowledge PM me) and I didn’t see any signs of it. Mind you, this is almost all in Bobo. I did see some prostitutes during my few days in Ouaga so the crime situation there is almost certainly different.

But as the linked article points out, you have to go through Burkina if you want to get anything that came off a ship in Ghana to Mali without a (more) circuitous route so a traffic in cocaine is plausible. I was in on a couple of conversations with Burkinabé regarding the mechanics of stealing, shipping, and fencing stolen scooters. Can’t recall the particulars, and all it proves is that there are criminal networks in the region, not that they are moving drugs and/or affiliated to international terror networks. But it does go to plausibility.

Interesting.

Trafficking on this level will spread its tentacles into the power structures of a nation. The big money is in the transshipment to Europe. Domestic markets for cocaine and opiates, or lack thereof, may be a clue into the nature of the trade.

The domestic consumer market for cocaine and heroin in Mexico during the 80’s and 90’s was much smaller than it is today. Basically there was a system and there were rules; if you open a kilo in Mexico, you die. The current violence in Mexico is attributable in part to the collapse of this system in the late-90s and early-2000s.

[ganulv]

Trafficking on this level will spread its tentacles into the power structures of a nation. The big money is in the transshipment to Europe. Domestic markets for cocaine and opiates, or lack thereof, may be a clue into the nature of the trade.

Your comment came to mind while listen to an NPR piece today—the particularly relevant bit begins around 2:10.

[bourbon]

Your comment came to mind while listen to an NPR piece today—the particularly relevant bit begins around 2:10.

It is an issue that is really in need of greater study. The best material I have read was by a French NGO called Geopolitical Drugs Watch (Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues) that in the 1990’s would publish an annual report called “The World Geopolitics of Drugs”. I think they were tied to either the French government or the EU, but they got their funding pulled and were shut down.

[Stan]

In my short time there I observed nothing that looked like evidence of any domestic drug trade.

I certainly don't want you regretting your post herein, but do have some comments.

Burkina was once famous for trafficking in people and all the ideal circumstances that promote and harness organized crime still exist there.

I don't doubt you know what a multimillion dollar drug transit point looks like, but I do doubt that in your brief stay you stumbled across the king pins by conversing in French with the locals.

As far as the incident with the gendarme goes, all he probably wanted from you was 5 bucks and you would have been well on your way.

[ganulv]

I don't doubt you know what a multimillion dollar drug transit point looks like, but I do doubt that in your brief stay you stumbled across the king pins by conversing in French with the locals.

I actually don’t. Almost all of my first hand with the drug trade is at the street level. My French is ####e even if that is something anyone would talk about with a stranger. I just mean I didn’t observe any tell-tale signs in Bobo. Ave. Nkrumah in Ouaga had a different feel, though I didn’t develop any real sense of the place.

Trafficking on this level will spread its tentacles into the power structures of a nation.

That stands to reason but I just didn’t see it in Bobo. Might have had something to do with the tension in Côte d'Ivoire cutting off a corridor?

As far as the incident with the gendarme goes, all he probably wanted from you was 5 bucks and you would have been well on your way.

Nah, though I originally assumed I was going to come out of the whole ordeal a digital camera (that was never going to make it to an evidence locker) shorter I changed hands far too many times and too many folks laid eyes on me. The gendarme who ended up clearing me was incredibly easy to deal with and actually and amazingly cut his boss short a couple of times on my behalf.