Monday, 16 November 2009

Venezuela-Mali-Europe: the cocaine connection



A Boeing coming from Venezuela crashed last 5 of November in Gao, Mali, after it had downloaded cocaine in that area and tried to lift off (here in French, here less in Spanish). Interpol is investigating now.

How come? Where did the plane set off in Venezuela? Was it from Maiquetía, the main airport? Is it possible for the Veneezuelan military not to notice up to 10 tones of cocaine in a Boeing setting off for Africa? Did the plane depart from La Esmeralda, the huge military airfield in the middle of the jungle in Amazonas State? Or from somewhere else? From where then? That is a big big plane.

In any case, what the authorities found were the burnt rests of the plane. The drug dealers had set in flame and run away. Still, they found some rests.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the following:

The Venezuelan government has been increasing its ties with West African countries for some years. Here you can read (in French) an article in an official Mali site about Hugo's visit to Mali, about the visit of Mali's president to Venezuela, about how Hugo payed for over 100 social houses, a school and more in Mali, how he promised more and about how Hugo showed a big interest in the geography of Mali, on the Niger Riger and irrigation, about "mining interests" and deals of Venezuela in Mali and more (I will go back to that article later on and translate it).

All possibilities I see:

  1. Some mid to high ranking military is using the new Mali-Venezuela links to trade in drugs behind the president's back
  2. The top in the government is involved (I don't think so, too crazy)
  3. Some drug dealers who have nothing to do with chavismo are involved and who just found a way to get around minor corrupt military in Venezuela
  4. Someone is trying to pretend the Venezuelan government is involved in the whole thing
So far I go for 1. Too early to tell.
It is an irony they found the plane close to Gao or "GAO"

Update: see my Spanish post for more details


Update 2: It was a Boeing 727!

5 comments:

  1. Kepler16 November 2009 at 13:41

    Thanks, Kane. I did something wrong with the HTML.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous16 November 2009 at 14:53

    We all know that the latest shipments
    of drugs came through Africa or African mules to Europe, what can you expect from the latest idea, start mining, building houses, open
    2 bank-facilities, giving credits
    just now Honduras is no longer available on the transport route?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kepler16 November 2009 at 15:56

    There is another piece of news arriving: two drug trafficquers searched by Interpol were caught in Venezuela just now:

    Detienen...

    coincidence?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tocolmo17 November 2009 at 02:53

    In english: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/mali/6585439/Boeing-transporting-cocaine-from-South-America-to-Africa-crashes.html#

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kepler17 November 2009 at 03:25

    Thanks, Tocolmo.

    I also wrote something more in my Spanish blog here:

    http://desarrollosostenibleparavenezuela.blogspot.com/2009/11/mali-y-hugo.html

    ReplyDelete

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