Cocaine flowing through West Africa 'fuelling corruption and crack use'

People gather around a speedboat believed to be used by drug traffickers as it unloads cargo at a quay in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. West Africa has become a major transit route for cocaine bound for Europe. ASSOCIATED PRESS - Rebecca Blackwell

An increase in cocaine trafficking through West Africa is fuelling corruption in some countries, reaching the highest levels of government, a report published this week warns. At least 30 percent of cocaine bound for Europe now passes through the region, while growing volumes of the drug are also being consumed locally, including in the form of crack.

The analysis comes from a report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), a Geneva-based NGO that studies crime networks.