Pubdate: Sat, 03 Jan 2009 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2009 The Edmonton Journal Contact: http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: Alistair Thomson Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) DRUG TRADE CLOUDS GHANA'S BRIGHT FUTURE Political Parties Accused Of Collusion With Traffickers Hopes of future oil prosperity have given a lift to Ghana's presidential election race, but drug trafficking threatens to spoil the West African country's image with the stain of corruption. During the heated election contest, the results of which may be announced this weekend, lurid headlines in the partisan press accused both main rival parties of collusion in trafficking or of using drug dollars to win votes. Hard evidence was lacking, but the allegations are indicative of Ghana's failure to tackle an illicit trade experts fear is turning West Africa into a "Coke Coast" and of corruption that threatens to cloud a bright future. After years of military rule and economic instability, Ghana has been seen as a success story since President John Kufuor was elected in 2000, attracting foreign donors and investors eager for a safe haven in a restive region. Yet tonnes of cocaine vanishing from police surveillance, a parliamentarian jailed in the United States for trafficking heroin, and the sabotage of efforts to combat smuggling or graft are more reminiscent of the region's failed or failing states. "I think it's an extremely serious threat," said Patrick Smith, editor of newsletter Africa Confidential. "It's not just the transhipment, it's the criminalization of the economy and of institutions. There is growing hard drug use among Ghanaians. They are all mutually reinforcing factors, and yet the government has not come down hard on them," Smith said. Yao Gede, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Ghana, said the record of Kufuor's administration in attracting investment and extending health and education services was undermined by widespread suspicions of graft. "There is that perception of corruption in the country, there is the belief that resources have not been shared equitably," he said. Increased investment in Ghana, encouraged by the startup of offshore oil production scheduled for late 2010, raises the stakes for both the criminal networks and those fighting them. "We hear of ... people being approached with huge cash offers to sell their houses to Colombians and Venezuelans, and it's clearly (money) laundering," said Smith. Nigerian gangs began smuggling heroin through the country in the 1980s, said Antonio Mazzitelli, regional head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Eric Amoateng, a member of parliament for Kufuor's ruling New Patriotic Party, was arrested in 2005 for smuggling 62 kilograms of heroin into Newark airport. He was jailed last year by a U.S. court after quitting his seat, but enjoyed significant support from parliamentarians and constituents who regarded him as a philanthropist. In recent years, cocaine trafficking has been spread across West Africa by rich, well-armed Latin American gangs who have used the impoverished region as a transhipment route to smuggle drugs into Europe. "Although Ghana is mainly a transit point for drugs, there is an increasingly organized framework within which these transactions take place," Kwesi Aning, head of conflict prevention at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana, wrote in a 2007 report on criminal networks. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin