Some W. African FDI flows may be drug proceeds: UN

By Pascal Fletcher

PRAIA (Reuters) - Sharp increases in foreign direct investment in at least three poor West African states could point to a surge in illegal proceeds from cocaine-trafficking swelling their economies, U.N. crime experts said on Tuesday.

A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on "Drug Trafficking as a Security Threat in West Africa" singled out Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea as states which had seen a jump in foreign direct investment (FDI) and other inflows not clearly justified by economic performance.

These countries are part of a West African region which U.N. anti-narcotics experts say is under attack from powerful Colombian drug-trafficking cartels which are channelling at least 50 tonnes of cocaine each year, and possibly nearly double that, through the area on its way for sale in Europe.