A special security operation has been running for four years between the National Police and the Civil Guard at Campo de Gibraltar in the province of Cadiz. By April 30, more than 10,000 drug trafficking suspects were arrested, while 1,400 tons of drugs were seized. Part of it comes from the Sahel route, The drugs come from Latin America and pass through Africa to Europe, Interior Ministry sources told El Periódico de España.
The Sahel is a belt that runs through Africa from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. In the western part, in the south of Morocco and in Algeria, there are several very politically unstable countries that have a serious problem of jihadist terrorism. The situation is particularly tense at the border between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Affiliated terrorist groups al-Qaeda (Support Group for Islam and Muslims) already Daesh (Islamic State of Greater Sahara). There are Spanish, French, German, European Union and UN troops in the region.
“Africa, and especially the Sahel, due to the porosity of its borders, the inconsistency of its states and its proximity to Europe, master node for drug trafficking”, they explain from the Interior. “There is a recurrent instability that has made the Sahel a center of illegal activity over the past few years: arms, drugs, people and goods smuggling, money laundering… And all this greatly supports terrorist groups.”
It is not uncommon for jihadist groups in the region to be directly responsible for drug trafficking. They are certainly not a “narco-jihad”. But they take advantage of it in two ways: First, drug traffickers pay terrorist groups to guard the roads through the Sahel to reach sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt to jump into Europe. In addition, the same sources reported that “factions, transportation or ‘transition rate’ when detecting routes.
Landing in West Africa
“Cocaine enters West African coasts from Latin America because they have no means. If your Navy consists of two patrol boats and you don’t even have an Air Force, how will you prevent drugs from entering? If it is already difficult for Europe…”, he argues for El Periódico de España. Paul Melly, Analyst specializing in Africa at the British think tank Chatham House.
While drug trafficking includes various substances such as marijuana, heroin or synthetic drugs, “cocaine remains the star product from the sales catalog”, they confirm.
African borders are very porous. Drug traffickers pass them easily. They then cross the Sahara Desert on motorcycles or off-road vehicles. “If you’ve watched movies about the desert, you have the Sahel image: huge semi-deserts and scrublands; thousands of miles of gravel and sand filled with acacia trees. They are impossible to stop. “There’s some US satellite surveillance, but even with that, the tools are limited,” he says.
There is also Libya. A failed state has split in two since the ousting of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Drugs and guns are also very profitable. All kinds of outside actors are involved in the Libyan conflict, including the Moscow-controlled Wagner mercenary groups. A lot provide advanced weapons. It is a weapon that the governments of the Sahel countries later found in the hands of terrorist groups fighting them.
Jihad and drug prohibition
Drugs and their trafficking are prohibited in Islam. In countries like Afghanistan, links to opium smuggling between the Taliban and al-Qaeda for decades have been demonstrated on the grounds that opium is consumed by non-believers, not Muslims. It is prohibited in principle in jihadist branches in the Sahel. And for this reason, some authors doubt that the problem of overlapping terrorism and drug trafficking is significant.
“The only clearly proven link between drug traffickers and jihadism is through the ‘cocaine lord’. Cherif Ould Attaher (Tahar)”, writes Beatriz de León Cobo in Ayalayar. He was already a drug dealer before he was number two in the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa. “An untouchable drug lord in the Sahel; His political ties allowed him to land Colombian planes directly on Gao”.
Paul Melly sees the drug problem as just one of the many evils plaguing that area. The biggest is terror, but there are also tensions in local communities over access to land, water, and pastures. Young adolescents are drawn into armed groups just as a way to get some money. Violence and distrust are common. ISIS and Al Qaeda are developing in this context. Jihadists began to act in earnest about a decade ago.
In addition, the region is highly exposed to the consequences of climate change. Drought is very common as it is a region where the rainy season lasts only two to three months from late June to early September. rates population growth is very high, more than 3% per year in some countries. Due to the fact that they are predominantly rural countries, the increase in the demographic problem creates a great pressure on land and water resources.