An ABC story tells a tale of drug cartels off-loading cocaine at a remote West African desert….and then burning the Boeing 747 in which it was delivered.
“At this point Al Qaeda in the Maghreb seems to be nothing more than just facilitators, but more and more we see evidence of them working together,” says an official for the US military at the Africom command center in Stuttgart, speaking on background. But it is safe to assume, the official adds, that Al Qaeda “is profiting from the drug trafficking trade going through its areas” of the Sahara.
A 2008 Department of Homeland Security report, obtained by Reuters, warned of a growing fleet of rogue aircraft at least 10 aircraft including executive jets, twin-engine turboprops, and aging Boeing 727s, crisscrossing the Atlantic. The DEA also told Reuters that all aircraft seized in West Africa had departed Venezuela.
Venezuela, eh? Maybe this will keep hollywood types from going to Caracas for photo ops.
H/T: Lucianne
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This post was written by bobsikes on January 23, 2010
