Cocaine traffickers net $900m annually - Report •Says Nigeria, Ghana remain transit countries

GLOBAL illicit drug business, especially trafficking in cocaine, is said to have net a whopping $900 million in 2012, according to a report by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

It was also revealed in Abuja on Tuesday that drug traffickers target Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa as transit nations.

The report, which was unveiled at an event in Abuja by the representative of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Ms Mariam Sissoko, indicated that Nigeria remained a transit country for illicit drugs.

She stated that trafficking in heroin and methamphetamine had increased in the region, while local production of the latter kept increasing in the country.

“West Africa as a whole continues to remain a transit area for the trafficking of cocaine from South America to European markets. Cocaine trafficking is estimated to generate nearly $900 million in profit annually for criminal networks targeting West Africa,” she said.

Sisoko said trafficking in heroin and methamphetamine had been increasing in the region, with methamphetamine increasingly produced locally, particularly in Ghana and Nigeria.

However, the report, which got reviewed 15 years after the previous one of 1997, stated that the Federal Government had made significant progress in certain areas of drug control.

Sissoko lauded commitments of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to combating drug trafficking and counterfeiting.

NAFDAC Director-General, Dr Paul Orhii, said the country was part of the nations with low consumption of opioids.

Concerned with this, the Minister of Health, Dr Onyebuchi Chukwu, authorised the procurement of morphine powder, including other opioid analgesics for use by both public and private health facilities to improve access to essential pain relief medicines.