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
