Drug barons in Kenya – NOT easy anymore - US

The Kenyan DAILY POSTNews07:48

Sunday the 22^nd of July 2012 - The US government has expressed its desire to help Kenya improve its fight against drugs by training local drug specialists a move aimed at combating the influence of South American drug cartels in Africa.

The US is waging a war of attrition against the Latin American drug gangs in the Americas and since the gangs have recently turned to Africa to create a conduit for sending drugs to Europe, the Americans have seen fit to train drug experts in countries like Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria to improve their capacity to repel traffickers.

A New York Times report quoted Jeffrey Breeden, the chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Europe, Asia as saying that Africa is the new frontier;

“We see Africa as the new frontier in terms of counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics issues.”

“It’s a place that we need to get ahead of — we’re already behind the curve in some ways, and we need to catch up.”

The South American drug cartels have been trying to make inroads into the continent in the last few years. One of the cartels even tried to bribe one of the sons of the Liberian president to be allowed to set up a drug corridor through the country.

Luckily the DEA was notified and that attempt was nipped in the bud as was a similar plam to set up a network in the Islamic Maghreb which tried to use Islamic militants in North Africa to transport the drugs in exchange for funding.

The Kenyan DAILY POST