So . . . I just found out that Sierra Leone is a major conduit for drugs destined for Europe. Who’d have thought? Apparently, Venezuelan authorities seized 2.5 tons of cocaine as it was being loaded unto a private aircraft bound for Sierra Leone!!! Wow!!!
My initial impulse was to once again feel ashamed of my countrymen for letting Sierra Leone become a portal for drug smugglers. In addition to all the other bad stuff Sierra Leone has become known for, I thought, it’ll now be known as a smugglers’ paradise. But the more I thought about this, the less ashamed I felt.
You see, I’m curious about how the drugs were going to get from Sierra Leone to Europe. After all, when I was in Sierra Leone last September, I got the impression that it’s incredibly difficult for Sierra Leoneans to get visas to enter any European country. Hell, I live in the U.S. and I get a hard time from the European consulates every time I travel to Europe! When I was in Sierra Leone, I saw first hand how hard it is for Sierra Leonenas to travel abroad. On my recent trip, I noticed that the majority of people on the flight to Freetown were Sierra Leoneans going home for holidays, funerals, weddings, etc. However, on the flight back to London, the majority of passengers were White!
So my question is, who exactly was going to transport all that blow to Europe. If Sierra Leoneans can’t even get visas to leave their country, I seriously doubt they’re the ones who are bringing drugs into Europe. I mean, most Africans have a hard enough time smuggling themselves into Europe, let alone illicit drugs.
If you were going to enlist people to smuggle massive amounts of illicit drugs into Europe, you’d be stupid to ask Sierra Leoneans to do it. They’d never even get a visa. It would be a much better idea to have European “tourists” do it. After all, they have an easier time getting out of Sierra Leone than Sierra Leoneans themselves.
[...] is not the first time Sierra Leone has emerged as a destination for drugs. A year ago, I wrote a blog post after reading a Miami Herald story about the siezuere in Venezuela of a Sierra [...]