UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon warned that the amount of drug trafficking in the West African country of Guinea-Bissau is much higher than previously reported. 

From Reuters Africa:

 Rising drug trafficking and organized crime in Guinea-Bissau could wreak havoc in the West African country, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report released on Thursday.

“The volume of drug trafficking is much greater than previously thought,” Ban said in the report to the U.N. Security Council.

“I am especially concerned about reports that Guinea-Bissau is no longer merely a transit hub, but appears to be fast becoming a major market place in the drug trade.”

He said the council may want to consider imposing sanctions on individuals involved in the drug trade and organized crime.

But Ban praised the country’s authorities for informing U.N. representatives that they were ready to support “robust, concrete action to target alleged participants at home, as well as their foreign collaborators.”

Guinea-Bissau, a tiny former Portuguese colony on the tip of West Africa, has become a major hub in the flow of cocaine from Latin America to Europe as traffickers take advantage of a long, jagged border and a weak state mired in constant crises.