Cocaine threatens stability in fragile West Africa

By David Lewis

DAKAR (Reuters) - Cocaine smuggling is fanning political turbulence and undermining investment confidence in West Africa, where drugs experts say Latin American gangs threaten to transform small nations into "narco-states".

Unexpected seizures from Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania to Sierra Leone and Senegal illustrate a haphazard response to drugs syndicates that run rings around law enforcement agencies despite help from the United States and European countries.

The danger comes at a critical time for West Africa, where several states are rebuilding after civil wars and the region is of growing interest to the most adventurous frontier investors.

"It is a huge threat," said Emmanuelle Bernard, West Africa analyst at the International Crisis Group think-tank. "The money from the drug trade is competing with the institution-building, which is what these countries need to be doing now."

"When there are those in power who are involved in the drug trade, its hard to do this," she added.

Nowhere better shows up the dangerous combination of drug money and a weak state than Guinea Bissau. Death threats against a minister fighting the drug trade were followed by a coup attempt and the arrest of the head of the navy.

"Cops and training are fine but we also need people to come up with things like guns, armoured cars and money for informants," said Antonio Mazzitelli, the West Africa representative of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime.

Guinea-Bissau's justice minister says she will fight on. She survived a government reshuffle triggered by a constitutional crisis that forced President Joao Bernardo Vieira to dissolve parliament and appoint a new cabinet.