UNITED NATIONS, April 6 (RIA Novosti) - Police in Guinea-Bissau failed to seize all of a two-ton cocaine shipment because their cars ran out of gas and they could not give chase, a top UN drug official said Friday.
Police in the West African nation managed to confiscate 635 kilos of cocaine worth $54 million, but most of the shipment got through.
Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN drug control agency, expressed regret over the failure and said he was surprised that the police were so ill equipped.
He added that his agency, the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime, received regular reports of drug dealing by high-ranking government and military officials in Guinea-Bissau, and about the systematic intimidation of police by drug traffickers.
