Corridor profile
12 legs · cocaine · 1 under monitoring.
The West African corridor: jurisdictions crossed and the law
Andean cocaine crossing the Atlantic to the West African coast for onward movement to Europe. Landing points concentrate where port oversight is weakest rather than where the geography is shortest, and the corridor has repeatedly shifted along the coast in response to enforcement rather than disappearing under it.
Why the legal profile of a corridor matters
A corridor is only as controlled as its most permissive crossing. That is easy to assert and hard to check, because it requires knowing what each state along the route is actually bound to do and what its own law provides — which is what this page sets out. The narrative account of how the route works is on the drug routes page; what follows here is the record, leg by leg.
Of the 12 jurisdictions on this corridor, 9 are party to all four instruments tracked on this site and 3 are not party to the Firearms Protocol. 1 carries no national instrument confirmed against a citable register, and 1 names no enforcement authority confirmed on their own government domain. Those last two are statements about what could be sourced, not about what exists — the distinction is set out under sources and methodology.
The legs
| Jurisdiction | Conventions | Firearms Protocol | FATF | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colombia | 3 of 4 | not a party | Not listed | A |
| Venezuela | 4 of 4 | 10 Jun 2013 | Increased monitoring | A |
| Brazil | 4 of 4 | 31 Mar 2006 | Not listed | A |
| Guinea Bissau | 4 of 4 | 24 Sep 2013 | Not listed | A |
| Guinea | 3 of 4 | not a party | Not listed | A |
| Senegal | 4 of 4 | 7 Apr 2006 | Not listed | A |
| Gambia | 3 of 4 | not a party | Not listed | A |
| Cabo Verde | 4 of 4 | 15 Jul 2004 | Not listed | A |
| Sierra Leone | 4 of 4 | 12 Aug 2014 | Not listed | A |
| Liberia | 4 of 4 | 22 Sep 2004 | Not listed | B |
| Ghana | 4 of 4 | 14 Jan 2014 | Not listed | A |
| Nigeria | 4 of 4 | 3 Mar 2006 | Not listed | A |
The instruments in force along this corridor
17 national instruments are confirmed against an official register across the 12 legs of this corridor. Read together they are the statutory basis on which anything charged along the route has to rest, and the unevenness between them is the reason a case built in one jurisdiction can fail in the next.
| Jurisdiction | Instrument | Confirmed on |
|---|---|---|
| Colombia | Ley 30 de 1986 | funcionpublica.gov.co |
| Colombia | Ley 600 | unodc.org |
| Colombia | Decreto Numero 2467 De 2015 | unodc.org |
| Venezuela | Law Narcotics | unodc.org |
| Venezuela | Ley Orgánica de Drogas - Asamblea Nacional | asambleanacional.gob.ve |
| Venezuela | Ley orgánica sobre sustancias estupefacientes y psicotrópica | unodc.org |
| Brazil | Law No. 11.343, Of 23 August 2006 Creating The National System For Public Policies On Drugs – SISNAD | unodc.org |
| Guinea Bissau | Décret Loi N 1/76 SUPPLEMENT | unodc.org |
| Guinea | Decree-Law No. 3/1993 Of 15 | unodc.org |
| Senegal | Code Des Drogues Du 11 Novembre 1997. (Loi N°18/97) | unodc.org |
| Gambia | 2003 Drug Control Act 2003 | ons.gov.gm |
| Gambia | 1935 The Dangerous Drugs Ordinance | unodc.org |
| Cabo Verde | Law 78/Iv/93 Dated 12 July 1993 | unodc.org |
| Sierra Leone | The Pharmacy and Drugs Act, 2001 | unodc.org |
| Ghana | Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement And Sanctions) Law, 1990 | repository.parliament.gh |
| Ghana | Pharmacy And Drugs (Amendment) Regulation, 1961 | brr.gov.gh |
| Nigeria | National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (Amendment) Decree 1992 | unodc.org |
Where the route is weakest on paper
Tracing. Colombia, Guinea, Gambia are not party to the Firearms Protocol, so along those legs there is no treaty obligation to mark weapons at import or to keep transfer records. Where there is no treaty obligation to mark or trace weapons, a weapon crossing here can lose its documented history without anyone breaking a rule.
Domestic instrument. Liberia carries no national instrument confirmed against an official register in this dataset. That is a sourcing gap rather than a proven legislative one, but it has the same practical consequence for anyone trying to establish what is chargeable on that leg: the text cannot be pointed to.
Financial controls. Venezuela is under FATF increased monitoring. The proceeds of a corridor move back along it, so a monitoring finding on a leg is a statement about the return path as much as about the outbound one — the mechanisms are set out under illicit finance.
Questions
Which jurisdictions does the west african corridor cross?
12 of the jurisdictions covered on this site: Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, Cabo Verde, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria. Each has a record setting out its treaty position, any national instrument confirmed against an official register, and its current standing in the monitoring process.
Is the legal framework consistent along this route?
No route in this dataset is uniform. On this one, 9 of the 12 legs are party to all four instruments, 3 are outside the Firearms Protocol, and 1 carry no national instrument confirmed against a citable register. Those differences are what a corridor exploits — the traffic settles where the combination is most permissive.
Which leg of the west african corridor is the weakest on the record?
On the three checks this dataset can apply — Firearms Protocol coverage, a confirmed national instrument and current monitoring status — Colombia carries the most gaps of any leg on this corridor. That is a statement about what can be verified, not a ranking of enforcement: a jurisdiction that publishes little scores worse than one that publishes badly. The record for each leg sets out which of the three is missing and why.
What does the monitoring status add to that picture?
1 of the 12 legs are currently under FATF increased monitoring: Venezuela. That is a finding about the financial controls rather than about drug enforcement, and it matters on a corridor because the proceeds move back along the same relationships the goods moved forward through.