DAKAR, (Reuters) – Guinea-Bissau’s caretaker president may have cooperated with the planners of a doomed cocaine-and-weapons smuggling scheme meant to arm Colombian rebels, according to U.S. court filings reviewed by Reuters yesterday.
The documents cast a shadow on international efforts to restore order in the tiny West African state, which has suffered a string of coups since 1974 independence and which has since become a transhipment hub for narcotics bound for Europe.
U.S. prosecutors filed indictments against Guinea-Bissau’s former navy chief, Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, and six other men late last week after trapping some of them in a daring sting operation off its Atlantic coast.
