Kenyan Connection

Recently a little more than ¾ of a ton of cocaine were seized in Nairobi, Kenya. The cocaine had been concealed in a speedboat and parked at a local house. Other large shipments which have been traced through the Nairobi airport have been in large quantities as well – a quarter ton, a half ton – all concealed in different packages.
In December a ton of cocaine was discovered in a shipping container. Police held two Italians and three Kenyans in connection with the seizure but under Kenyan law, suspects cannot be held for more than 24 hours without being charged in court unless they are being investigated for a capital offence such as murder or armed robbery.
Cocaine moves to Kenya and is then sent back to the United States or on to Europe and Asia. Heroin moves in the opposite direction from the east and into Europe, Asia or through Africa.
How can all this traffic move without constant detection?
Without putting a name on it please recall that KLM is based at Amsterdam, Holland. Holland has the most lenient drug laws of all ‘modern’ nations.
KLM is one of top 20 largest airlines in the world and partially owns Transavia – a Dutch holiday airline, Kenya Airways, and Martinair.
Dutch carriers KLM Cargo and Martinair have an agreement with Kenya Airways to form a joint venture cargo sales and service organization in Nairobi
The company uses Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as its hub to link African freight markets to the international route networks of its three founding owners.
Through the joint venture, KLM, Martinair and Kenya Airways lease freighters with 15 to 40 tons capacity to serve the intra-Africa freight market.
The company will tailors services according to market needs
KLM is based in a country with a tiny market, yet maintains one of the world’s top 20 airlines in a time of financial instability for most of the airline industry.
KLM operates a trans-Atlantic alliance as well.
This global network maintains all certificates and documents necessary to ship internationally. Remarkably – each one of them maintains special privileges in their home countries which excuses them from inspection merely by keeping their permits in order. This airline network is one of the most blatant examples of international trade failure and security danger that the United States and civilized nations face today.
It is clear from the continued problems surfacing in transit points like Kenya that these airlines may be the mainline in drug trafficking for most of the world. They also point out a severe security lapse that must be addressed.
It is not a ‘level playing field’ when a cash strapped industry is used openly by drug traffickers to distribute their cargoes of death around the world at their pleasure.
Eastern Airlines was destroyed because of their support of the international drug trade.
I believe it is time to look at why KLM prospers in the face of the same pressures their less ‘well-connected’ competitors are ravaged by.
Clearly it is not a matter of superior management ability. All things being equal it is difficult to tell these airlines apart from the competition except for the fact of their continued outrageous profitability. The success of this small sector in the global industry is a glaring indication that things are not what they seem to be just as assuredly as the failure of US Airways and their continued support by the Bankruptcy Courts.