West Africa And Drug Trafficking To The Uk

Introduction To West Africa’s Involvement With Narcotics

West Africa has become a global hub for illegal drugs transiting from both Latin America and Asia to many continents around the world. Globalization regarding organized crime has been increasing over the years. With the demand for narcotics now ‘sky high’ in the United Kingdom, this means more lives are at risk. Including young adults/children in the UK (BBC News 2018). The UK is now the cocaine capital of the world due to such high demand, however where is it all coming from?West Africa is particularity susceptible to influence by transnational criminal organisations (TCO’s) due to endemic corruption, minimal border security, regional geographic location and poor resource management (Wallace 2015). The West African region is particularly susceptible to influence by TCO’s for a myrid of reasons, with corruption being the main area for concern. Additionally, government officials regarding parliament and the military are involved with drug trafficking. With this going on for several years there is no saying as to when it will end, especially with corruption within the state by state officials (NCA, 2018).

Overview of Transnational Crime and Drug Trafficking Trends/Network approaches

As stated, West African countries are susceptible to influence by TCO’s and DTO’s for a variety of reasons. Among those reasons are weak law enforcement, rampant poverty, and porous borders within the region (Washington, DC: U. S. Congress, 2013). Additionally, the geographic location between south America and Europe play a huge part with the smuggling of narcotics into the UK. The location of West Africa makes it an ideal main steam to the trafficking of narcotics intro Europe. Therefore, using this main route is the easiest. West Africa boasts a coastline that is longer than either one of the U. S. continental coasts (Wallace 2015).

This vast coastline and its associated archipelagos are largely unmonitored by West African law enforcement agencies (Wallace 2015). This is due to the economy being so weak, that the socially embedded structure of the economy has collapsed leaving virtually no power over what comes from the seas. With little money and government attention, the geographic advantages combined with little law enforcement capacity permits Latin American drug cartels to ship narcotics via containerised shipping to a midway point between Latin American and emerging European markets.

Poverty contributions

Poverty within West Africa is another key reason as to why cocaine can pass through so easily. Poverty is the key enabler to this rampant corruption. Two thirds of the population in Guinea Bissau lives below both U. S and U. K poverty level. West Africa in fact lacks any real industrial base and the only agricultural crop of significance is the production of cashews. West Africa’s countries economies’ such as Guinea Bissau suffers from the impact of cocaine trafficking because it often dwarfs the states legitimate sources of revenue (Regan 2015). With narcotics known to pass through Africa and then forward into the European markets. The poverty that results from an economy based largely on the underground market guarantee’s an environment that is attractive to DTO’s (Drug Trafficking Organisations) (U. S. Department of State Bureau for international Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs 2014).

Corruption in West Africa has been referred to as endemic and in fact noted as an attractive vulnerability of the region to south American drug cartels (Fedotov 2012). The corruption present in Guinea Bissua has permitted the Columbian drug cartels to gain influence in the general area, from buying people off to taking control. As well as this, criminal groups from Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Spain, Venezuela are involved in the West Africa drug trade (TCO’s). Criminal organisations use West Africa as a ‘strategic warehouse’ as well as an area that provides relative safety for the formation of criminal relationships (Cockayne and Williams 2009).

Drugs being trafficked through West Africa

The trafficking or local production of cocaine, heroin and ATX affects West African security by leading to a greater drug dependence by the local population such as the United Kingdom. Why is this a national security threat to the UK’s borders? This demand for more drugs into the UK, aggravates health risks such as ‘Human Immunodeficiency Virus’ and heptatitis C, whilst fueling the corruption that exists in the structures of the government (Philip 2008). Additionally, both cocaine and the corruption present damages the national security of the UK, fueling more DTO’s to produce more product for the high demand that currently stand’s in the UK.

With mainly cocaine being passed through West Africa to hit the European markets, as shown in figure 1, there are so many routes available to criminal organisations to enable them to plan carefully and ship the narcotics. According to the UNDOC ‘The world drug report 2014’ this is done by many ways, from submarines (if the drug cartels have money to spare), to public transport, shipping containers to even mules on airplanes. Regardless, there are many ways to ship cocaine into the UK, which unfortunately the NCA, Interpol, UNDOC and local police services cannot keep up with all the time. According to The Guardian (2008) Between 1998 and 2003 the total quantity of cocaine seized each year in Africa was around 600kg. But by 2006, that figure had risen five-fold and during the first nine months of last year it had reached 5. 6 tons.

The UK’s National Interest Regarding Toc

In 2011, in Southampton UK the UK’s largest ever seizure of class A drugs was discovered from a yacht. Officials found 1. 2 tons of cocaine with a street value between £50m and £300m. once tested it is estimated that 92% of this cocaine came from West Africa, whereas the other remaining percentages came from Peru and Italy (BBC News 2011). According to the NCA (2018) the amount of cocaine estimated to be imported annually into the UK is between 25-30 tons.

Transnational Organised Crime continues to grow not just within the UK but globally. The UK’s current illegal drugs market remains to this day extremely attractive to organised criminals. In addition, the prices of illicit drugs at street level are some of the highest in Europe, this is to repay the costs of smuggling the drugs into the UK, due to being seen as difficult (NCA, 2018). British organised criminals are active at all levels of the UK’s drug trade from importing to street distribution. The NCA (2018) state that it’s known that a large number of foreign nationals present in the UK, are heavily involved regarding the drugs trade. Furthermore, some have cultural and family ties to the countries where drugs come from. This gives TOC’s more of an advantage as they can ‘recruit’ more individuals or even mules to assist with the smuggling of narcotics into the UK via airplane (Strategic comments 2011).

In order to determine how the drug trafficking that occurs in West Africa, Guinea Bissua impacts the national security of the UK, a definition of exactly what national security interests are and how they differ from national interests is deemed appropriate to comment on. According to Dr. Bailey, national interests are determined by looking through the broad lens of diplomatic, political, economic, social and cultural interests of the nation. National interests are addressed through both positive and negative influence by diplomatic means, propaganda, cultural programs and economic measures (Bailey 2015). National security is a subset of national interest and comes into play when the vital interests of the country are at stake, up to and including its survival.

In this case, the threat posed from cocaine entering the UK, poses great threat to the citizens of the country. Additionally, financially citizens of the UK will be affected more regarding tax, whenever a huge threat is constantly imposed on British waters. This will lead to a more of a demand in resources/money by government officials to assist with tacking and eliminating the problem.

Conclusion & Recommendations

Recommendations

There could be a focus on maintaining a physical presense in the region, enhancing the counter narcotics efforts within West African states whilst also building partner capacity within organisations such as ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and the African Union (AU). Cooperate with European Law enforcement agencies in order to target and dismantle TCO’s. Have the government assist ‘Cote D’Ivoire more with its smuggling problem with making the ‘swabbing’ device (itemizer) more efficient for the NCA/Interpol/UNDOC/Police to use in detecting narcotics (Verdict 2018). Have the UK assist more with the cashew production in West Africa, creating more jobs, profiting citizens of Africa so that they do not have to turn to criminal organisations to make a profit to live.

Conclusion

West Africa is one of the poorest, least developed and unstable regions on the continent of Africa with significant security, governance, humanitarian and environmental challenge’s. With Columbian drug cartels shipping increasingly large quantities of cocaine a year to European markets, there is no denying it is a thriving success for organised criminal gangs. Even though this is known globally as a hub for cocaine transportation, there is very little being done due to the vast corruption present in government officials. To tackle this problem, everyone needs to pull together from different continents to tackle this problem and put an end to it. Otherwise, it can heavily impact our communities and in some cases cause death to mainly young adults in the UK.