US Authorities Working to Shut Down Cocaine Airlines
US Authorities Working to Shut Down Cocaine
Airlines
Federal investigators are working to understand and limit a new trend in drug smuggling. South American gangs are reportedly buying old jets to fly large quantities of cocaine across the Atlantic Ocean to feed the growing European demand for the drug.
Current US indictments indicate at least three different gangs have struck deals to fly cocaine to West Africa and then to Europe. One trafficker admitted to having six aircraft making the flights, while another said he had five. Because of a lack of radar coverage across the big ocean, larger planes can cross the Atlantic relatively undetected.
The new trafficking route is somewhat remarkable because of the distances involved and the intricacies of flying large jets. A trip from Venezuela to West Africa is approximately 3,400 miles, about 3 times the distance from Venezuela to Florida. The United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime first warned of trafficking across the Atlantic last November when a burned Boeing 727 was discovered in the Mali desert. Authorities reported that smugglers had used the jet to fly drugs from Venezuela, unloaded the drugs and torched the plane.
In a number of cases, executive jets have been used, such as a Gulfstream that was seized in 2007 as it was preparing to depart from Venezuela for Sierra Leone in 2007, and another Gulfstream that was seized after landing in Guinea-Bissau in 2008. Both planes were carrying large amounts of cocaine.
Over the last year, a series of arrests and subsequent investigations has led to a greater understanding as to how the air routes work. These cases are being prosecuted in a federal court in New York City because a portion of the drugs was earmarked for distribution in the US.
Federal investigators are working to understand and limit a new trend in drug smuggling. South American gangs are reportedly buying old jets to fly large quantities of cocaine across the Atlantic Ocean to feed the growing European demand for the drug.
Current US indictments indicate at least three different gangs have struck deals to fly cocaine to West Africa and then to Europe. One trafficker admitted to having six aircraft making the flights, while another said he had five. Because of a lack of radar coverage across the big ocean, larger planes can cross the Atlantic relatively undetected.
The new trafficking route is somewhat remarkable because of the distances involved and the intricacies of flying large jets. A trip from Venezuela to West Africa is approximately 3,400 miles, about 3 times the distance from Venezuela to Florida. The United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime first warned of trafficking across the Atlantic last November when a burned Boeing 727 was discovered in the Mali desert. Authorities reported that smugglers had used the jet to fly drugs from Venezuela, unloaded the drugs and torched the plane.
In a number of cases, executive jets have been used, such as a Gulfstream that was seized in 2007 as it was preparing to depart from Venezuela for Sierra Leone in 2007, and another Gulfstream that was seized after landing in Guinea-Bissau in 2008. Both planes were carrying large amounts of cocaine.
Over the last year, a series of arrests and subsequent investigations has led to a greater understanding as to how the air routes work. These cases are being prosecuted in a federal court in New York City because a portion of the drugs was earmarked for distribution in the US.
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