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. Two years ago an official at the Department of Homeland Security sent a report to his superiors. It warned that a growing fleet of rouge jet aircraft was crisscrossing the Atlantic ocean carrying tons of cocaine. The planes were flying out of parts of Colombia controlled by leftist FARC rebels. They were landing in some of West Africa’s most unstable countries. Now there is evidence that groups with ties to Al Qaeda are involved in the drug trade. That is all according to an investigative report published by the news agency Reuters. Correspondent Tim Gaynor is the article’s lead author. Tim, at this point, what is the scale of this illegal aviation network?
TIM GAYNOR: We were able to travel to three countries in West Africa with a correspondent in South America. We traced at least ten aircraft that have been linked to this route. Some of these aircraft included turbo prop, executive jets like Gulf Stream and worryingly Boeing 727 airliners. They have a capacity to move multi-ton quantities of cocaine within one or two stops right around the world. … GAYNOR: U.S. drug enforcement administration says there are nine drug cartels from South American and Mexico that do business in Africa.
WERMAN: What is the connection to Al Qaeda?
