Corruption, instability and poverty have facilitated the establishment of drug traffickers in Guinea-Bissau, the scene on Wednesday of a coup d'état justified by the military by the threat of destabilization involving "drug barons" and which sheds a harsh light on the murky links between trafficking, politicians and the army, aggravating political instability.

Outrageously expensive 4x4 vehicles and luxurious villas suddenly acquired without any known activity of the owner: in Guinea-Bissau, there are lifestyles that do not lie... These unexplained riches are often a sign that a personality has plunged into trafficking.

Guinea-Bissau's history has been marked by military coups and violence since its independence in 1974.

Instability is exacerbated by drug traffickers who use the country as a transit zone for cocaine between Latin America and Europe, to the point that the country is described by the most pessimistic analysts as a "narco-state", and some of its officials are labeled by the United States as "drug barons".

On Wednesday, the military explained that they had been "forced" to carry out their coup to guarantee "national security and restore order." They cited the discovery by "general intelligence" of a "plan to destabilize the country with the involvement of national drug lords."

These general intelligence reports "confirmed the introduction of weapons into the country to change the constitutional order," claim these military officers, who carried out their operation while the results of the presidential and legislative elections of November 23 were expected.

According to the Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa (GI-TOC), in an article from last August, "Guinea-Bissau has long been a key cog in the international cocaine trafficking system" but this "market in Bissau is currently expanding, and is more lucrative than ever in the country's history".

- "Cocaine Economy" -

"Tons of cocaine are regularly trafficked via Guinea-Bissau, and Colombians are regularly spotted in the biggest hotels in the capital," Bissau, according to the Observatory, which also points to "Hummers brazenly driven by Colombian traffickers in the streets of Bissau."

According to GI-TOC, "the cocaine economy is inextricably linked to the Machiavellian political system of this small West African state" which suffers from endemic corruption.

More than a quarter of the population lived below the poverty line in Guinea-Bissau in 2023, according to the World Bank, and the colossal sums generated by drug trafficking make people envious and fuel corruption.

Suspicions are being raised about the campaign financing of certain political parties, which suddenly inherit shiny 4x4s to crisscross the country.

A few months before the November 23 elections, the NGO noted that "Guinea-Bissau risked entering a period of great turmoil, with a flourishing cocaine trade and costly election campaigns to finance".

Drug traffickers based abroad are linked to their local accomplices in Guinea-Bissau, who have contacts among the security forces to guarantee the safety of the shipments, a source close to the case told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Scouts" within the trafficking network alert their contacts in Bissau to the arrival date of a ship or plane from Latin America, the source continued. Then, "escorts" follow the "product" and travel with it to Bissau.

- Police cooperation -

Military officials or high-ranking government officials in this country have often been cited in this trafficking in recent years.

The son of a former president of Guinea-Bissau, Malam Bacai Sanha Jr, was sentenced in March 2024 to several years in prison in the United States for his involvement in an international heroin trafficking operation.

President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who was overthrown in the coup on Wednesday, had ruled out in August 2021 extraditing General and former coup leader Antonio Indjai, who is wanted by the United States for his alleged involvement in drug trafficking linked to the Colombian FARC.

But unlike five years ago, the personalities involved no longer ostentatiously display their wealth and keep a low profile, due to increased police cooperation between Guinea-Bissau, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and the United States.

Four Latin Americans, sentenced in January by the Bissau-Guinean justice system to 17 years in prison each for drug trafficking, were thus handed over in April to the American anti-drug agency (DEA) which proceeded with their transfer to the United States.

West Africa has long been "a natural stopover" for drugs, mainly cocaine from Latin America, which transit to North Africa and Europe, primarily by sea, but increasingly by land, according to a 2024 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Drugs and trafficking are scourges in several other countries in the region, notably Guinea and Sierra Leone, which are facing epidemics of consumption of kush, a synthetic cannabinoid used locally, and crack, a derivative of cocaine.