DAKAR, (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 yesterday.
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 organisation, 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 organisation, 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.
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.
