Venezuelan drugs Boeing crashes in Mali

AN unspecified-size Boeing aircraft has crashed in West Africa after dropping off a consignment of Venezuelan cocaine.The aircraft had just taken off from a makeshift landing strip in Mali, having unloaded an estimated 10 tonnes of cocaine, when it crashed. At time of going to press there was no information about the aircraft type, whether it belonged to an established airline or whther there were any fatalities.While the aircraft type is not yet known, the fact that it was a Boeing suggests that it was considerably larger than the typically lighter aircraft used to smuggle drugs.Alexandre Schmidt of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said: “This is the first time – as far as we know – that South American drugs lords have used a plane of such capacity, rented for the occasion, to smuggle cocaine to Africa.“We don’t know how long it has been going on, we cannot say whether it is the first or the last flight of this type. It could be considered a new modus operandi and that is worrying.”The international police organisation Interpol is now investigating.

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