Mali: Crashed cocaine loaded plane found

  1. Posted on Wednesday 18 November 2009 - 10:14
    KingsleyKobo
    Image of KingsleyKobo
    Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
    A Boeing plane used by drug lords to transport cocaine from Venezuela to Mali crashed earlier this month in the West African nation while attempting a midnight takeoff in a lonely bush, AFP said.
    cocaine
    According to the representative of the UN's regional office on drugs and crime, the body of the plane was only found on Monday.

    "A Boeing coming from Venezuela landed on a makeshift landing strip some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Gao (in the north east) and unloaded cocaine and other illegal substances," Alexandre Schmidt of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

    "The plane wanted to take off but crashed on November 5th," he added.

    According to Smidt, the exact amount of drugs carried on the plane was not known but experts say a Boeing could carry some 10 tonnes of cocaine.

    The drugs have not yet been recovered. The international police organisation, Interpol, is carrying out an investigation.

    "This is the first time as far as we know that South American drugs lords have used a plane of such capacity, rented for the occasion, to smuggle cocaine to Africa,” Smidt added.

    Most of these drugs coming from South America pass through West Africa and are smuggled to the European markets, according to experts.

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