Quand les programmes se heurtent: le combat contre les drogues et le crime organisé en Afrique de l’Ouest

L’Union européenne doit améliorer sa connaissance des trafics de drogues et des activités criminelles dans les pays concernés, afin de s’assurer que ses projets sont sensibles aux effets potentiellement pervers sur le crime organisé et le marché de la drogue en Afrique de l’Ouest. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

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Drug trafficking continues to be the most dynamic criminal activity, involving the largest number of organised crime groups, and providing the greatest illicit revenue stream.

Countermeasures have forced smugglers to continuously adapt their techniques, triggering a quasi-Darwinian process of selection where only the fittest survive. Yet, not all law enforcement interventions in drug markets are necessarily targeted at organised crime. To the contrary, most policing activity impacts on drug consumers, low level operators or opportunists.

Where law enforcement agencies work together internationally, as they do in West Africa, continuous scrutiny is needed lest programmes designed to combat organised crime dwindle into skirmishes in the global war on drugs.

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