U.S. accuses Bissau military chief in Colombia drugs, weapons plot
By Richard Valdmanis
DAKAR | Thu Apr 18, 2013 5:16pm EDT
(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice has accused Guinea-Bissau's top
military official of plotting to traffic cocaine to the United States and
sell weapons to Colombian rebels, according to court documents seen by
Reuters on Thursday.
The accusation against General Antonio Indjai - widely seen as the
coup-prone West African nation's most powerful man - is the first official
signal that criminality may go straight to the top in what has for years
been labeled a 'narco-state'.
Guinea Bissau authorities repeatedly have denied any involvement in drug
trafficking and Indjai is believed to be in the country.
The indictment filed in New York's Southern District Court and seen by a
Reuters reporter, charges Indjai on four counts: "narco-terrorism
conspiracy", conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist
organization, cocaine importation conspiracy and conspiracy to acquire and
transfer anti-aircraft missiles.
The charges said Indjai planned to store FARC-owned cocaine in Guinea Bissau
and sell weapons, including surface-to-air missiles to the organization, to
be used to protect its cocaine processing operations in Colombia against
U.S. military forces.
"These charges reveal how Indjai's sprawling drug and terror regime
threatened the national security not only of his own country, but of
countries across the globe," Michele Leonhart, administrator of the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said.
"As the head of Guinea-Bissau's Armed Forces, Indjai had insider access to
instruments of national power that made him an allegedly significant player
in West Africa's dangerous drug trade," Leonhart said in a statement.
NARCO-TERRORISTS
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Indjai conspired to use his power and
authority at the top of Guinea Bissau's military to be a middleman and his
country to be a way-station for people he believed to be terrorists and
narco-traffickers of Colombia's FARC rebel group.
Washington has labeled FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) a
terrorist organization.
Guinea-Bissau's military has long been accused of involvement in trafficking
tons of Latin American cocaine, using its mangrove-lined offshore islands as
cover against the region's notoriously weak law enforcement.
"As with so many allegedly corrupt officials, he (Indjai) sold himself and
use of his country for a price," Bharara said in the statement.
"The charges against Indjai, together with the recent arrests of his
co-conspirators, have dismantled a network of alleged narco-terrorists," he
added.
U.S. undercover agents snared Guinea-Bissau's former Navy chief rear admiral
in a high-seas drugs sting on April 2 - the most high-profile score in the
U.S. war on drugs in Africa.
U.S. authorities said in the statement that two of Indjai's co-conspirators
Manuel Mamadi Mane and Saliu Sisse were also arrested in the sting.
Sources familiar with the operation say Indjai was also targeted, but he
dodged the planned arrest by refusing to meet the undercover agents in
international waters.
Indjai seized control of Guinea Bissau in a coup last April before he ceded
power to a transitional government led by a civilian president, Manuel
Serifo Nhamadjo, in a deal brokered by West African regional bloc ECOWAS.
The European Union and the CPLP grouping of Portuguese speaking nations have
since refused to recognize Nhamadjo's administration, claiming it remains
under the control of military officials involved in the drugs trade.
Na Tchuto and air force chief Ibraima Papa Camara were placed on the U.S.
'drugs kingpins' list in 2010 following a 2009 cocaine deal but Indjai was
never placed on the list.
Undercover informants for the U.S. Drugs Enforcement Agency had met with
Indjai, Na Tchuto and several other suspected traffickers several times
since the middle of 2012 to set up the April 2 sting operation.
According to the court documents, Indjai was meant to provide the land for a
front company to store the drugs in Guinea-Bissau and he told undercover
agents at a military base in Guinea-Bissau last year that he would be an
intermediary for the weapons sale.
"The General also stated that he would discuss the plan with the president
of Guinea-Bissau," the court documents said.
Nhamadjo's government has vehemently denied any drugs links and said it
would seek to defend Na Tchuto, a 63-year-old veteran of Guinea Bissau's
independence war.
An estimated 50 tons of cocaine move through West Africa every year,
according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, most of it
heading north to European cities, where the drugs are worth almost $2
billion on the streets.
(Additional reporting by Bernard Vaughan in New York; Writing by David Lewis
and Bate Felix; Editing by Michael Roddy)
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Received on Thu Apr 18 2013 - 17:48:46 EDT
