The African cocaine route

West Africa has become a major transit point for Latin American cocaine on its way to Europe. Guinea-Bissau is now Africa's first narco-state, a nation controlled and corrupted by drug cartels. It is indeed a country of dreams, with everything criminals need: "a strategic location, weak governance, and an endless source of foot soldiers who see few viable alternatives to a life of crime". What else, it has the "Bijagos Archipelago, 70 beautiful islands that were once a stopping point for seafaring traders. Only about 20 of the islands are inhabited, but many have natural ports and abandoned airstrips built by Portugal during the war for independence."  And, there is virtually no radar coverage in West Africa.

And now the UN is investigating the crash in the Sahara desert of a cargo plane, which is thought to have been carrying 10 tonnes of cocaine from Venezuela! Airplanes geeks are very impressed: "Trans-Atlantic ghostflying drugs-loaded plane bound for West-Africa! Very impressive. That takes cowboy 727 flying to a whole new level. Cowboy trans-oceaninc cargo jets! Wow. These people are living on the edge..."