Bissau president implicated in U.S. drugs case

By Richard Valdmanis

DAKAR (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's caretaker president may have cooperated with the planners of a doomed cocaine-and-weapons smuggling scheme meant to arm Colombian rebels, according to U.S. court filings reviewed by Reuters on Monday.

The documents cast a shadow on international efforts to restore order in the tiny West African state, which has suffered a string of coups since 1974 independence and which has since become a transhipment hub for narcotics bound for Europe.

U.S. prosecutors filed indictments against Guinea-Bissau's former navy chief, Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, and six other men late last week after trapping some of them in a daring sting operation off its Atlantic coast.

According to the indictments, the men planned to bring 4,000 kg of Colombian cocaine to Guinea Bissau inside a shipment of military uniforms and then smuggle weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, back to Colombia's FARC rebels for use against American anti-drugs forces.

The filings state that one of the chief conspirators in the plan, described only as a "high-level official in the Guinea Bissau Military", told undercover agents in July he would discuss the plot with President Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo.

"The day after tomorrow, I'll talk to the President of the Republic," he is quoted as saying in the indictment, filed in New York's Southern District Court on Friday and since made public.

Two other suspects told undercover agents at a meeting in Bissau in September they would speak with the "President and the Prime Minister" about the deal, according to the documents.

"Guinea Bissau government officials would, as a fee, expect 13 percent of the cocaine," a separate unnamed suspect told the undercover agents, according to the documents.

A spokesman for Nhamadjo denied Nhamadjo had any knowledge of the plot, adding: "None of this is true. It makes no sense."

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Bissau president implicated in U.S. drugs case