Big Cocaine Bust on the Ivory Coast

The cocaine was seized from traffickers this month in a police operation that took place in the commercial capital Abidjan [File: Luc Gnago/Reuters]

Those burlap bags look like they are full of animal feed, not cocaine, but perhaps that was the cover story and the blocks of toot are buried in these bags. Ivory Coast coppers need to learn how to show off their bust. Do it like we do, with a big display of confiscated guns, drugs and money.

Evidently west Africa is a waypoint for shipping contraband from South America to Europe. That's one way for range-limited airplanes to cross the Atlantic. Of course, it could have come by ship, but then I would wonder why they didn't head for someplace farther up the coast. Maybe they got a deal on a warehouse in the Ivory Coast, a warehouse that they thought was safe. Guess not.

There are roughly 750 million people in Europe. "About 40 tonnes[of cocaine] pass through the region annually, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development." - Aljazeera

40 tonnes is 40,000 kilograms which amounts to 40 million grams. If a user uses a gram a week, then 40 million grams is going to be enough to supply 750,000 people, or about one person in a thousand.

If a gram sells for 100 (dollars / Euros / pounds), that 40 million grams amounts to 4 billion in retail sales. While that is nothing like the 100 billion bills we are seeing for armaments, it's nothing to sniff at. 

We aren't going to worry about whether the drug is being cut (mixed with inert material) or not. We're just going to have put that down as noise, along with how much gets stopped by the coppers, how much gets lost on the way, and how much gets stolen.