African Crime Gangs in Asia
Nazri Ghani
Bangkok is becoming an Asian crossroads for African criminal gangs
specialising
in drugs and illicit diamonds
By Shawn W. Crispin/BANGKOK
Far Eastern Economic Review
Issue cover-dated May 24, 2001
ABDUL, A 30-SOMETHING LIBERIAN, does business out of a dingy hotel
room in a
Bangkok alley. "Are these what you are looking for?" he asks, opening
a small
felt-lined box of 20 twinkling diamonds. "If you like these, I can get
more."
Abdul likes to be paid in U.S. dollars, not Thai baht, and only cuts
deals by
the light of day. "We can do good business together," he smiles. His
two
stern-faced nameless companions, both in baseball caps and gold
chains, lean
silently against the room's dirt-smudged walls.
Across much of the world, trade in the sort of diamonds that Abdul
hustles has
been banned. These are "blood" or "conflict" diamonds, dug out of
mines in West
Africa, often Sierra Leone, and used to finance bloody rebel
conflicts.
Outlawed they may be, but here in the back streets of Bangkok's gritty
NaNa and
Pratunam districts you can get such gems. And if you want heroin or
other
narcotics, you can get those too.
For Bangkok's small but rapidly growing African community--which since
the
mid-1990s has risen from the hundreds to beyond the 10,000-mark--these
streets
are home. Here, the sound of Thai pop gives way to the driving rhythms
of
Africa, and couscous, not rice, fills diners' plates. Many of the new
immigrants from Africa are involved in legitimate textile and leather
goods
trading. Many others are not.
African criminal gangs--often fronted by legitimate businesses--are
increasingly using the Thai capital as a centre for heroin trading,
human
smuggling and the peddling of blood diamonds. Easy immigration and
customs
procedures, aimed at promoting tourism, provide an open door for
underworld
business. Once in, the welcome mat for African criminal gangs is
cushioned by
lax local law enforcement and a racially tolerant population that
makes
integration easy. Such open ways are making Bangkok an increasingly
inviting
Asian crossroads for Africa's dirty business.
FOR MANY NEW ARRIVALS, the Orchid Beer Bar in Bangkok's NaNa district
is their
first stop. Here, Africans get together and party over bottles of beer
and
stand-up games of tic-tac-toe. Nightly, the bar bounces to the music
of
Nigerian dissident Fela Kuti; condom ads hang over the heads of chunky
prostitutes; raucous cheers greet television pictures of Muhammad
Ali's
daughter Laila as she lands an uppercut flush on an opponent's chin.
Moments
later, a group of five African men are met with a similar cheer--Abdul
excitedly embraces them, one by one, bellowing: "Welcome Brothers!
Welcome to
Thailand!" Hours later, Abdul picks up the 2,000 baht ($44) bill,
explaining:
"These are my partners."
Perhaps, but only for the next deal. Unlike the strict hierarchies and
codes of
loyalty that characterize the Italian Mafia or the Chinese triads,
African
crime syndicates operate more loosely and horizontally. According to
Western
anti-narcotics officials, African gangs in Bangkok are unique in how
they come
together, share responsibilities and then separate after doing a deal.
This
mixing and matching makes it hard for law-enforcement officers to keep
track of
syndicates. In Bangkok, the Orchid Beer Bar, among others, is where
matches are
made, opportunities sought, spoils celebrated.
With plenty of business to go around, co-operation offers many
advantages, not
least because it keeps gang violence and cover-blowing conflicts to a
minimum.
In the heroin trade, Western anti-narcotics officials believe a
loosely
connected group of 20 African men is calling the shots. When law-
enforcement
officials do get a lead, it seldom amounts to much. Thai military
intelligence,
for instance, claims to have an eye on one suspected ringleader, a
restaurateur
known in certain circles as "Napoleon." That's a thin lead, though:
"The
trouble with names is that they mean so little," says a Western anti-
narcotics
official.
The collective flexibility of the syndicates also allows them to
thrive in the
face of changing market conditions. Fairly or unfairly, after a series
of
high-profile busts in the mid-1990s, West Africans in Thailand
developed an
unflattering reputation as heroin traders. Their main suppliers were
the
Chinese gangs that dominate the trade in heroin from Southeast Asia's
Golden
Triangle. But in the late 1990s, those Chinese gangs began
transporting their
heroin through southern China, rather than Thailand. That left the
African
gangs high and dry.
Only temporarily though. Since early last year, African gangs have
shifted
their gaze westwards, and begun to source heroin direct from
Afghanistan and
Pakistan. In the past, that wouldn't have been feasible: Heroin from
Central
Asia is brown coloured and less pure than its Golden Triangle
counterpart, and
fetches less than a quarter of the price on the streets of Western
cities. But
recent new refining techniques now allow Central Asian producers to
bleach
their heroin white. Using Nepali and Pakistani couriers, or mules,
West African
crime syndicates now move Central Asian heroin from Lahore to Bangkok,
re-brand
it under traditional Golden Triangle monikers, such as the famous Two
Lions
seal, and re-export it the West. "With re-branding, there is a lot of
money to
be made," says the Western anti-narcotics official.
Such easy earnings are luring in more African gangs to Bangkok,
particularly
from clans in war-torn parts of East Africa. But, faced with ever-more
sophisticated surveillance of passengers arriving into Thailand at
Bangkok
airport, they're shifting away from traditional smuggling routes and
moving
distribution through Laos and Cambodia. Relatively lax surveillance in
the
transit lounges of Bangkok international airport justifies the expense
and
hassle of flying in from Phnom Penh or Vientiane before heading on for
African
destinations. Officials in Cambodia are only now catching on--already,
dozens
of Cameroonians are languishing in Cambodian prisons on drug-smuggling
charges;
Laotian customs officials, though, are still unaware or complicit in
the trade,
say Thai officials. And with confusion reigning in Indonesia, Jakarta,
too, is
developing a thriving African crime presence.
The African syndicates are riding different mules now, too. Since the
mid-1990s, regional anti-narcotics officials have been paying more
attention to
passengers travelling on African passports. So, African gangs have
taken to
recruiting less scrutinized Caucasians and Asians to move their
smaller
shipments. Recently Uzbek women, often pimped by African men in the
NaNa
district, have been busted in Bangkok airport trying to smuggle heroin
that's
carried in bags or swallowed in condoms. An increasing number of Thai
women,
too, are taking on this dangerous assignment, which pays as little as
$250.
"The West Africans are a thorn in the side--not in terms of
quantities, but in
terms of repetition and persistence," says the anti-narcotics
official.
AT THAILAND'S International Crime Intelligence Centre in Bangkok, lead
investigator Apichit Thianpermpool is thumbing through a pile of
background
profiles of recently arrested Africans. They've been grabbed for a
litany of
crimes, ranging from drug trafficking to passport forgery to money
laundering.
"Sierra Leone, Malawi, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Cameroon--they are
coming from
everywhere," says Apichit. "Unfortunately, African governments are
unwilling to
help. And unless the crime is serious, local [Thai] police don't seem
to care
either."
It's not just the police, though. Thai officials generally seem
unwilling--or
unable to tackle either the African trade in drugs or blood diamonds.
In the
country's anti-drug efforts, the main focus is on fighting the tide of
methamphetamines--yaa baa, or crazy pills--flowing in from Burma.
Because the
African crime gangs operate relatively quietly and export most of
their
products, there's little collateral social damage, and thus little
public
pressure for action against them.
In Bangkok, Lumpini police station superintendent Pravit Lekhavanij
pleads
ignorance about the heroin and many other illicit trades that flow
through his
jurisdiction. "We haven't had a single [heroin] bust in the area all
year,"
says Pravit, almost boasting. When pressed, he concedes it is
"possible" that
clean slate could be because his men are paid to turn a blind eye. The
Western
anti-narcotics officer says he and his colleagues are still struggling
to
comprehend why the West African syndicates seem to be so well
protected. "No
doubt they are bringing a lot of cash in and out of the country," he
says.
According to Prince Ademola Aderele, Nigeria's ambassador to Thailand,
Africans
have been "stigmatized" through past association with drugs. "In the
past the
drug trade was fashionable," says the prince, who acknowledges that
more than
160 Nigerians still languish in Thai prisons. "Most Africans have
adjusted
themselves to other economic activities," he adds. Aderele points to a
nascent
Nigerian community association that meets monthly and discusses how
Africans in
Thailand can stay "on the right side of the law." Many remain on the
wrong
side, though. Chalk it up to cost-benefit analysis: Nigeria has no
formal
anti-narcotics cooperation with Thailand or Western anti-narcotics
agencies.
But while fighting the African crime rings is not yet a priority,
there are
signs of some official concern. After a high-profile execution of drug
dealers
in April, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra pointed to the problem of
drug-dealing Africans, and vowed to close immigration loopholes.
There are bigger holes, particularly in the blood-diamond trade.
Thailand still
fails to require certificates of origin for gemstones that enter the
country
legally. Earlier this month, the United Nations banned gem exports
from Liberia
as part of sanctions against the country, which is accused of
fomenting war in
West Africa in order to gaining access to mineral resources, usually
diamonds.
The Diamond Association of Thailand denies any of its 30 members
receive
conflict diamonds, but the situation on the black market is less clear-
cut. The
gem-hustler Abdul claims to have nearly 20 regular European and Middle
Eastern
customers. Thailand also seems to be firmly in the sights of Africa's
most
notorious warlord: Liberian President Charles Taylor--who, along with
his
government ministers, is directly targeted by the UN sanctions--made
an
unexplained, unofficial six-hour stopover in Bangkok on March 28; some
of his
military henchmen have been spotted in recent months at the Hip-Hop
Café
late-night disco in NaNa district.
Taylor has publicly denied any involvement in the blood-diamond trade.
Other
African states, too, say their hands are clean. In Bangkok, Ambassador
Aderele
acknowledges an informal gemstone trade emanating out of Nigeria, but
insists
on the "impossibility" of conflict diamonds being funnelled through
Nigeria due
to the "high moral standards" of Nigerian customs officials. Nigeria,
though,
is often ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world by
rating
agencies such as Transparency International. The country's borders are
also
relatively open to its neighbours due to a regional free-trade
agreement that
allows freedom of movement and trade spanning from Nigeria to Senegal.
Back at the Orchid Beer Bar, Abdul exchanges high-fives with two
African men
wearing hats by a sportswear maker whose logo is suggestively shaped
like a
diamond. Abdul reclaims his stool, chats up a Thai prostitute, slugs
his beer,
soaks in the Nigerian grooves and beams: "What a wonderful country."
Bang Adil
They are everywhere, just watch your e-mail. They claim they have
millions of
dollars awaiting for you in a Negerian bank, or in a Dutch bank in
Amsterdam,
or Rotterdam, or even in Germany. All what you need to do is give them
your
bank account number so they can transfer the money to you, so they
said.
Be especially cautious with Orang Minyak who can speak Malay or
Indonesian,
because you can easily mistaken him as one of your brothers.LOL