Impunity and low risk make West Africa a “haven” for traffickers

While worldwide production, trafficking and consumption of illegal drugs remained stable last year, West Africa bucked the global trend and saw increased trafficking and use of cocaine and other drugs, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's 2007 World Drug Report.

6 Jul 2007

Dakar - “No country in West Africa is immune from the drug trafficking attack,” said Antonio Mazzitelli, the UNODC representative for West and Central Africa.

While in 2005 cocaine seizures in Africa accounted for only 0.3 percent of global seizures, the continent saw a six-fold increase in seizures of the drug between 2000 and 2005 – one of the largest increases in the world.

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