Hugo Chavez's Venezuela 'supplies half of Britain's cocaine' - Telegraph

Last year, about 250 tons of cocaine are thought to have passed through Venezuela - up to a five-fold increase on 2004. Much of this ended up in Britain. Anti-drugs officials estimate that more than 50 per cent of all the cocaine consumed in Britain has been trafficked through Venezuela - under the 'revolutionary' regime of Mr Chavez. The figure could be as high as two thirds. Senior commanders in Venezuela's security forces are thought to be profiting from the trade and actively helping the smugglers, notably by allowing them to use military airfields. "Venezuela is a magnet for drug trafficking right now. It's a huge problem," said a senior member of another Latin American government. "Venezuela is a Bermuda Triangle for drugs." A crucial change in the global pattern of narcotics smuggling is now underway. Colombia remains the world's largest producer of raw coca, which is refined into cocaine. In the past, most of the narcotics were smuggled northwards to the Caribbean, for onward passage to Europe or America. But today the cocaine is more likely to go over the eastern frontier into Venezuela. Here, drugs bound for Europe are loaded onto long-range aircraft and flown across the Atlantic to West Africa. Small countries with little ability to police their airspace or coastlines, notably Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Sierra Leone, are key transit points. The flights are unloaded at these locations and the drugs shipped onwards to Europe.