Resource Nationalism, Jihadis, Sanctions Evasion, Narco-Trafficking, and the Colonialist Narrative: Government Takeover of Uranium Mine in Niger, Record Deliveries of Cocaine to Europe, and Criminal Networking

Colonialism as a Narrative Justifying Organized Crime  

     The military junta in Niger confiscated a uranium mine in the country from a French company that was a 63% owner, citing past colonialism. Historical and legacy colonialism and exploitation are no doubt issues worth acknowledging, understanding, and preventing in the future. However, the narrative of colonialism is being used to justify crime, corruption, and rogue governments. Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has also cited colonialism as a reason to keep American and other multinational companies away from producing its vast oil fields. Socialists and political Progressives have long talked about past colonialism as a negative effect on countries, but it has now become a justification for getting revenge by expanding black markets, informal economies, and vast organized crime networks. So, those leftists are, in a sense, collaborating in the narrative that past colonialism is a justification for modern crime. Russia has also supported and exploited the colonialist narratives put out by African countries as a means to gain influence over Western countries. 

 

Unholy Alliances

     Circumstances often dictate how different people, governments, and groups collaborate. The lucrative trade of cocaine is one instance. Colombia is where coca leaves grow naturally, has long been, and remains the source of much of the world’s cocaine. Production has been increasing in recent years. More recently that cocaine has been moved to Venezuela, which has a much longer coastline, and then shipped to West Africa, where some governments also assist in the lucrative trade, particularly the narco-government of Guinea-Bissau. Jihadists from Al Qaeda and other groups also assist, often by taking bribes to allow the drugs to pass through the territories they control. 

     In the case of Niger’s uranium, the buyers are expected to be from Iran, Russia, and/or Türkiye, with the first two under more or less global sanctions. Thus, it is clear that these two countries are part of these unholy alliances I am talking about. The narco-traffickers use the same sanctions evasion techniques to disguise themselves, such as turning off plane transponders, like the oil tankers do.

“Traffickers are flying at least one cargo a week from Venezuela to West Africa, say current and former Western officials. Smugglers turn off their planes’ transponders to hide their movements and bribe air-traffic controllers to switch off their tracking systems when drug planes pass overhead, according to InSight Crime.”

     With the dangers of drug use amplified immensely by fentanyl being added to other drugs besides heroin, there is a danger of death from using these drugs. It really should be considered death by poison. These drugs are now tied not just to organized crime but to rogue states and jihadist networks, feeding their coffers. In Lebanon and Syria, when Assad was still in power, there was an epidemic of a stimulant drug called Captagon that was dealt by organized crime, assisted by jihadi groups like Hezbollah, and the governments. Benoit Faulcon of the Wall Street Journal writes:

“The confluence of drug smugglers, jihadists and corrupt officials is part of a growing global alignment among criminal gangs, militant groups and rogue governments that threatens democratic norms and social stability, with profound potential ramifications.”

     While some of that cocaine makes its way to the U.S., giving justification for stepping up intervention (though not likely to the level of blowing up boats and killing all on board), most ends up in West Africa, on its way to Europe, including Eastern Europe, and other places. Al Qaeda-affiliated groups may escort convoys of drugs in exchange for big payoffs. This happens in Mali, another country with a recent coup and now ruled by a military junta. Russia is often, but not always, involved and aligned with the African military juntas and has meddled significantly in several of these countries.

     One result is that much more cocaine is being seized in Europe than in the U.S. Venezuela has become a top Latin American transit route to Europe, but cocaine is also shipped to Europe from Brazil, Guyana, and other countries in large quantities. Spanish police recently detained 13 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua for cocaine trafficking. One private jet seized by Guinea-Bissau authorities contained 2.6 tons of cocaine from Venezuela. The coke is delivered overland to Venezuela from Colombia.

     This is nothing new and has been going on for at least a decade.

“Corruption at airports has also enabled organized criminals to ship large quantities of drugs through commercial airliners. In 2013, shortly after Maduro’s election, a British drug trafficker shipped almost 1.4 tons of cocaine hidden in suitcases on a flight from Caracas to Paris, where it was seized by French police.”

     These days, it is a more organized and vaster network of corruption, bribes, payoffs, escorts, and collusion by many people, governments, and businesses.

“From Mali, the drugs cross the Sahara and into Algeria, Morocco and Libya, say Western officials. A Russia-backed Libyan faction is collecting fees on cocaine transiting from Niger to Egypt, according to a 2024 U.N. report. From Northern Africa, the drugs are shipped across the Mediterranean Sea to Southern Europe.”

     Even so-called narco-subs are being used to deliver cocaine directly from Colombia/Venezuela to Europe.

“Colombian drug dealers also use semi-submersibles from Venezuela to move cocaine to Spain, according to InSight Crime. Portuguese police earlier this month detained such a vessel with 1.7 tons of cocaine, manned by a Venezuelan crew, as it sailed across the mid-Atlantic.”

     The influence of narco-gangs around the world has become more sophisticated and aligned with other lucrative organized crime ventures, such as illegal mining, illegal logging, oil stealing, illegal fishing, etc. It has been reported that some members of Mexican drug cartels went to fight for Ukraine in order to learn about drone warfare that they could employ against the intervention of their crimes.

     While there have been attempts at intervention in Africa by European law enforcement, the rise of military coups has complicated those efforts considerably. When governments become complicit with organized crime, often the worst elements of it, there will be problems.  

     Whether Maduro or Colombian President Gustav Petro is involved in the cocaine trade is a matter of debate, but certainly, they are not doing much about it. In some ways, they can’t because of the sheer power of narco-traffickers in the region, some of whom in Colombia are still associated with many decades-old militants like the FARC. Petro stated in February that cocaine was no worse than whiskey and argued that it should be legalized, which would hurt the smugglers. That is not likely to ever happen. He also argued that it was safer than fentanyl. If it were legal, then his country could benefit from its production as the world’s largest supplier. Petro argued at the UN meeting in September that the UN was unfairly measuring Colombia’s cocaine output and that it is lower than they depicted. He was trying to defend his anti-narcotics stance, but the argument is not very substantial since the UN’s estimated 10% increase since he became president in 2022, from 230,000 hectares under production in 2022 vs. 253,000 in 2023, is really a slight increase to an already massive problem. According to Colombia One:

“Since Gustavo Petro took office in August 2022, Colombia has shifted its counternarcotics policy, prioritizing the voluntary substitution of illicit crops over forced eradication.”

     The conservative opposition in the country has denounced the policy change away from forced eradication. Al Jazeera reported on November 21, 2025, that Colombia seized a record 14 tons of cocaine at a Pacific port, bound for shipment to the Netherlands, the largest bust in a decade. The cocaine was disguised in plaster and is said to contain 35 million doses. As a dig at Trump, Petro emphasized that the bust was carried out without a single death.

     Meanwhile, the newly elected conservative government in Bolivia invited the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) back into the country after being gone for 17 years. The new narcotics tsar has noted that Bolivian cocaine production had “spiraled out of control.” He also noted that international cooperation is the key to fighting the narcotics trade. I believe that a shift in Latin American countries from far left and socialist leaders to center-right or center-left leaders would also be helpful to those countries in a number of ways, including less narco-trafficking. More legitimate economic development, including resource development. Petro has pledged to stop fossil fuel production in Colombia, which runs counter to that.

 

Resource Nationalism: There are Acceptable and Unacceptable Types

     Resource nationalism is nothing new, and many countries do it in a way that is acceptable to modern economic systems. Many countries have nationalized oil and gas companies, mineral interests, etc. This is usually not problematic, though it can be inefficient and manipulate markets. Venezuela is an important example where distrust of American and multinational oil companies led to the removal of them, as well as skilled Venezuelan workers. This resulted in the tragic and unnecessary deterioration of the Venezuelan oil industry. Bolivia suffered from a similar issue, where available oil & gas and lithium resources were not pursued. That wave of resource nationalism was a feature of the 1990s, particularly among leftist and socialist leaders. In the case of Bolivia, it led to unrealized economic development. Russia’s highly manipulative resource nationalism is well-documented. The imposing of sanctions also created a criminal cartel of sorts. When Russian oil was first sanctioned, there was an acknowledgement that less oil on the market would lead to price spikes. Thus, there was little effort to enforce sanctions. It is good that that is changing now, as sanctions evasion is being scrutinized more with buyers being targeted more. Open-sea ship transfers have resulted in fake declarations of oil origins. Oil-sanctioned countries, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela have collaborated and strengthened cooperation in these criminal networks, but with buyers being pressured not to buy by threat of sanctions against them, there is less room for them to succeed.

     The SOMAIR mine in northern Niger was expropriated by the government from the French nuclear fuels company Orano, which recently criticized an overland shipment posing

 "serious safety and security risks”, citing threats of diversion of the radioactive material and breaches of international transport rules.”

A convoy carrying uranium concentrate, known as yellowcake, had left the Arlit mining site just days ago. Up to 1050 tons of it had been moved, according to reports. According to Reuters:

“But in a broadcast Sunday night, Niger's state television said the country would exercise its "legitimate right" to sell uranium from the SOMAIR mine to any buyer under market rules, as sovereignty over natural resources was "non-negotiable".

     The country’s leader cited colonialism as justification, referring to “wealth plundered for more than half a century.”

“The move violates a September ruling by the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which barred Niger from selling or transferring SOMAIR's uranium in breach of Orano's rights.”

     The government seized the mine last December and nationalized it this summer. Niger is the world’s seventh largest producer of uranium and accounts for about 15% of Orano’s supply if the mines are operating at full capacity.

     Microsoft Copilot offers a definition of resource nationalism:

“Resource nationalism is the assertion of control by a country over its natural resources, aiming to maximize domestic benefits and ensure that resources primarily benefit the nation's citizens.

     The problem with resource nationalism is that companies with the knowledge, financial resources, and technology do not make enough money, and they will not assist in the projects. This, along with massive corruption and sanctions, is what led to Venezuela’s oil production nosedive.

     This problem with the collaboration of organized crime networks, narco-trafficking, jihadi terrorists, rogue governments, sanctioned governments, and corrupt officials needs to be addressed and contained. Demand for cocaine in Western countries also needs to be addressed. However, I don’t think bombing suspected drug boats is a good long-term plan. It may work, but there are many problems with that approach.  

 

 

References:

 

How Venezuelan Gangs and African Jihadists Are Flooding Europe With Cocaine. Benoit Faucon. The Wall Street Journal. November 30, 2025. How Venezuelan Gangs and African Jihadists Are Flooding Europe With Cocaine

France's Orano says uranium convoy from seized Niger mine poses safety risks. Maxwell Akalaare Adombila. Reuters. December 1, 2025. France's Orano says uranium convoy from seized Niger mine poses safety risks

Cocaine "no worse than whiskey," would be "sold like wine" if legalized worldwide, Colombia's president says. CBS News. February 6, 2025. Cocaine "no worse than whiskey," would be "sold like wine" if legalized worldwide, Colombia's president says - CBS News

Colombia hails ‘historic blow’ after largest cocaine bust in a decade. Alastair McCready and News Agencies. Al Jazeera. November 21, 2025. Colombia hails ‘historic blow’ after largest cocaine bust in a decade

Colombia’s Petro Urges UN to Revise Report on Cocaine Production. Josep Freixes. Colombia One September 25, 2025. Colombia’s Petro Urges UN to Revise Report on Cocaine Production