2010-04-08
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday it has designated Guinea-Bissau's Air Force chief of staff and the former Navy chief of staff of the African nation as international drug kingpins.

The action prohibits Americans from conducting financial or commercial transactions with the two and freezes any assets they have in the United States.

"Today's action underscores the harmful role that narcotics-related corruption plays in West Africa, especially in Guinea-Bissau," Adam Szubin, director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a statement.

Targeting current Air Force chief of staff Ibraima Papa Camara and former Navy chief of staff Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto "impedes their ability to profit from the narcotics trade and engage in destabilizing activities," Szubin said.

The U.S. moves follow recent military infighting in Guinea Bissau, a major hub for drugs being shipped from Latin America to Europe and one of the world's poorest nations.

Soldiers briefly held Prime minister Carlos Gomes Junior last week and ousted armed forces Chief of Staff Admiral Jose Zamora Induta.

That incident was preceded by the re-emergence of Na Tchuto, an ally of new armed forces chief General Antonio Njai, from refuge in a U.N. building.

Na Tchuto was accused of plotting a 2008 coup and was due to be handed over to Gomes' government for trial.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Na Tchuto "was complicit in the activities surrounding the illegal detention" of Gomes.

The department said both Na Tchuto and Camara are involved in drug trafficking and are linked to an aircraft suspected of flying a multi-hundred kilogram shipment of cocaine from Venezuela to Guinea-Bissau in July 2008.