East Africa 'a major drug-trafficking route to Europe'

East Africa is now one of the world's major drug supply routes, with tonnes of cocaine and heroin suspected of being smuggled into Europe, a senior British official said today.

Traffickers from Colombia and south Asia are preying on corrupt officials and weak border controls in the region to ships drugs to lucrative European markets, foreign office official Kim Howells said.

In the last year, Britain alone has made 12 substantial seizures of cocaine in shipments that had come through Kenya.

The problem is growing, said Howells, who was on a three-day visit to press Kenyan authorities to take action on the issue.

"The Kenyan government has to step up to the mark on this," Howells said at a news conference, after watching a training programme for Kenyan police who will patrol the country's porous border with Somalia.

"We all have to realise that this is now one of the major routes for the lucrative drugs markets of Europe for drugs that are coming from the other side of the world."

He says traffickers are using traditional trading routes to smuggle drugs over land, sea and air.

In December 2004, Kenya made Africa's largest cocaine seizure, confiscating 2,500 pounds of the drug in the capital, Nairobi, and coastal resort town of Malindi.

Investigators say the drugs originated in Latin America.

In total, 15 people were arrested, but only one person was convicted, prompting claims that corrupt or inept Kenyan police officers protected the smugglers from prosecution.

Howells also warned that porous borders allowed suspected terrorists in neighbouring Somalia to slip in and out of the region without notice.

"It is very important for the international community to tackle terrorism and drugs," he said. "You live in a very tough neighbourhood."