<<Print>>

Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, Minister for the Interior, on Thursday said government was keen on tackling internal and external inefficiencies in the handling of cases of illegal drugs and other crimes. Dr Kumbuor said the external threats related to the various transnational trafficking flows such as drugs, human beings, toxic waste, counterfeit medicines, cocoa and cigarettes that affected the country. He said a regional approach to tackling the threat had been put in place, and that there was the need to have national building blocks as an effective strategy to combat the menace. Dr Kumbuor said this at a workshop in Accra on the validation of the draft copy on the national integrated programme to fight transnational organized crime in strengthening the criminal justice system. He said West African countries suffered from a combination of factors that made them vulnerable to organized crime because many of the countries� governance structures were weak. Dr Kumbuor said most of the regions in those countries were located along illicit trafficking routes, which paved way for criminal groups to recruit foot soldiers from the youth to engage in illegal drug activities. He further said the value of trafficking flows dwarfed local economies, which undermined rule of law, polluted the environment, violated human rights and deepened corruption. Dr Kumbuor noted that these practices made West Africa more prone to political instability and less able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.