West African Drug Kingpin Arrested In Undercover Sting Operation

[HuffingtonPost]

By Richard Valdmanis and Alvaro Andrade                

DAKAR/PRAIA, April 4 (Reuters) - Undercover U.S. agents have  arrested the former navy chief of Guinea Bissau, wanted by  Washington as a kingpin of the international drugs trade, in a  sting operation off the coast of West Africa, two sources  familiar with the operation said.                

Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto was detained by  anti-narcotics officers along with four other people on a boat  in international waters on Tuesday, the sources told Reuters.                

It was the most high-profile arrest to date in the fight  against drugs trafficking in Guinea Bissau, where ruthless South  American cartels have used the mangrove-lined islands as a base  for smuggling cocaine into Europe for more than a decade.                

Na Tchuto, who has been involved in several failed coups in  the former Portuguese colony, was transported to Cape Verde, and  would be sent on to the United States for prosecution, the  sources said.                

Na Tchuto was one of two Bissau Guineans designated as drug  kingpins, or "significant foreign narcotics traffickers" by the  U.S. government in 2010, and hit with a U.S. travel ban and  asset freeze.                

Both Bubo Na Tchuto and Air Force Chief of Staff Ibraima  Papa Camara were linked to an aircraft suspected of flying  several hundred kilogrammes of cocaine from Venezuela to Guinea  Bissau in July 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department said.                

Guinea-Bissau's military has repeatedly intervened in  politics since independence from Portugal in 1974.                

United Nations counter-narcotics officials say there is also  evidence senior officers have helped Latin American cocaine  cartels ferry tonnes of drugs from Colombia to Europe, using  Guinea-Bissau's maze of coastal creeks and offshore islands to  store and transfer them.                

Guinea-Bissau is rich in natural resources - including  minerals, cashews, and some of the world's best fisheries - but  political instability has hindered investment and kept most of  its 1.6 million people mired in poverty.                

The country has been in turmoil since soldiers last seized  power in April 2012. A post-coup transition government released  Na Tchuto from prison in June, after he was jailed following a  failed December 2011 attempt to take over the country.                

The current caretaker government of President Manuel Sherifo  Nhamadjo was supposed to organise elections in May but a summit  of West African heads of state last month extended the  transition period until the end of this year.                

Army chief General Antonio Indjai has been accused of  leading the April coup and the European Union says he still  holds sway.                

On Thursday, Indjai accused the British honorary consul in  Bissau of spreading false rumours about the situation in the  country and said the military would not tolerate anyone who  tried to tarnish the nation's image abroad.              (Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Via: HuffingtonPost