Antonio Indjai, Narco-Terrorism, New York 2013
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced charges against Antonio Indjai, the head of the Guinea-Bissau Armed Forces, for conspiring to sell surface-to-air missiles to a foreign terrorist organization.
The indictment alleges that Indjai, in his position atop the Guinea-Bissau military, conspired to use his power and authority to be a middleman and his country to be a way-station for people he believed to be terrorists and narco-traffickers. He allegedly agreed to receive and store multiton quantities of cocaine owned by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a South American paramilitary group designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Indjai also allegedly conspired to sell weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, to be used to protect FARC cocaine processing operations in Colombia against U.S. military forces. He was charged with conspiring to import narcotics into the United States.
According to the indictment, Indjai became the head of the Guinea-Bissau armed forces in June 2010. Beginning in the summer of 2012, he and his co-defendants communicated with confidential sources working with the DEA who purported to be representatives and/or associates of the FARC.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff. Indjai's co-conspirators Manuel Mamadi Mane and Saliu Sisse were apprehended in a West African Country on April 4, 2013, and thereafter transferred to the custody of the United States and transported to the Southern District of New York for prosecution.
The charges against Indjai, together with the recent arrests of his co-conspirators, have dismantled a network of alleged narco-terrorists. As the head of Guinea-Bissau's Armed Forces, Indjai had insider access to instruments of national power that made him an allegedly significant player in West Africa's dangerous drug trade.
Indjai has been the subject of a United Nations travel ban since May 2012 as a result of his alleged participation in the April 2012 coup d'état in Guinea-Bissau.
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: Narco-Terrorism
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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