Equatorial Guinea
Documentation of drug network headed by President Obiang growing

afrol.com, 18 October - On 10 October, a Madrid court sentenced the Equatorial Guinean Ex-Minister of Information to 9 years prison for the trafficking of 14,7 kg heroin while stopping over in Spain after an official visit to Pakistan. Documents afrol.com has obtained in the aftermath of the sentence document the involvement of the government, headed by President Obiang, in international drug trafficking.

After having obtained his prison sentence, Ex-Minister Santos Pascal Bikomo agreed to release a series of documents, written by himself and by Joaquín Alogo, the killed son-in-law of President Teodoro Obiang. The documents disclose innumerous details about a drug trafficking network within the Government of Equatorial Guinea and headed by the Equatorial Guinean President himself. Afrol.com was given access to these documents by the Guinean opposition, and republishes them (in their Spanish original) in their entirety.

The document  Un huésped incómodo (An uncomfortable Guest) was used as a testimony by Ex-Minister Bikomo in his defence. It documents how the relationship between President Obiang and the minister, already from 1996, began to worsen. In his defence, Bikomo explained all the details about the "complot" he meant he was exposed to by various persons in the Equatorial Guinean Government, "all following orders from the President." Bikomo tells that he was warned by friends that Government colleagues suspected him of collaborating on a possible coup d'état, and that all his movements were carefully observed.

The fatal visit to Pakistan by the Ex-Minister had been planned for one year, and he was to be accompanied by the President's son-in-law, Joaquín Alogo. Some 24 hours before departure, the President decides that his son-in-law is not to go with him. Bikomo travels alone, accomplishes the diplomatic mission he is supposed to. When he is off to Madrid, some Pakistani investors ask him to carry a suitcase with marble samples to a fellow acquaintance in Madrid, Spain. "I can tell you, that I didn't have any problem with this during my flight, and I travelled without the least worries," Bikomo stated in court.

Arriving Madrid, however, the Equatorial Guinea ambassador, together with Spanish police, meet him at the airport, awaiting to open the suitcase.

Throughout the document, Bikomo gives innumerous details of the activities of the ambassador to Madrid, Nsobeya, which had been in charge of organising Bikomo's visit, according to orders from President Obiang. Among the descriptions, one finds quotes from the ambassador, saying he is tired of the drug trafficking he has to do for the President, behind the diplomatic shield. "Continuing his explications, he told me that, what he on some occasions used to do, is, when the Boss sends or obtains goods, he uses to take out a small portion, and in this way sells it to have some money. He gave me the example of his super villa, which he constructing in Malabo, and I understood everything".

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema

Bikomo also goes into details about the structure of the drug trafficking network and how the network works. In his document Guinea Connection, he accuses President Obiang, the President's brother Armengol Ondo Nguema and his first-born son Teodorín El Patrón of being the leaders and organisers of the network. It is based in Malabo, from where the big quantities are shipped to Europe, while the smaller quantities are distributed on the diplomatic journeys by several ministers and by the majority of the Diplomatic Corps. Bikomo discloses a long list of names of the involved, including companies, members of the Executive and ambassadors.

Equally significant, after the Madrid trial against Bikomo, the Dossier de notas (Dossier of Annotations) written by the late Joaquín Alogo became available. Alogo was supposed to testify for Bikomo, but he was killed in Colombia under circumstanced not well known, and the dossiers were brought to Madrid by his widow. While occupying several official posts given to him by President Obiang, he also expressed his opposition to this drug trafficking network. This is, in detail, accounted for in his paper Mis relaciones políticas con el presidente Obiang (My political relations with President Obiang) in the Dossier.

Among the texts by Alogo, there are several passes that more than indicate that Bikomo had something to fear from the President, such as: 

- September 1996: President Obiang asks me to help him getting politically rid of Santos Pascual Bikomo, his Minister of Information, and a true oppositional within the Equatorial Guinean Government. The Ambassador [to Madrid] was also instructed in that matter."

About the famous suitcase in Bikomo's possession, Alogo states that it "in reality belonged to my father-in-law, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo". According to Alogo, his father-in-law was heading a Spanish drug trafficking network, using his Madrid Ambassador as an agent. "To sum up, the Ambassador serves the private and criminal interests of Obiang Nguema in Spain. He sells diplomatic passports to foreigners, mostly drug dealers, for example to the Equatorial Guinean Honorary Consul in Nairobi (Kenya)."

Alogo's dossiers is a continuous tale of his relationship with Obiang and the regime between April 1992 and May 1997. Except giving details about the drug trafficking network, it also gives an in-depth accord of the more domestic corruption. About the 1993 elections, for example, Alogo reports:

- The Legislative Elections are hold. Santos Pascual Bikomo wins over Obiang with 57,60% of the valid votes given. The President calls on me and threatens to kill me. Thus, I give up my logistic assistance to Mr. Bikomo's political party. President Obiang gives orders to all the Election Committees in the big towns to falsify the polls, with a death penalty for non-compliance."

This, however, is not the only time Obiang threatens to kill his son-in-law:

- After becoming aware of some baker's cheques in the name of President Obiang, he calls for my arrest accusing me of an intended coup d'état. 60 Equatorial Guineans going to Gabon were arrested. The security forces of Obiang tortures us until they get tired of it. 12 days later, I am brought into a special plane destined to Malabo. I had to shut up not to get shot: Not talk about the passports the President made me deliver. Not talk about the US$ 8 million from an oil deal on the account of Juan Olo Mba Nseng. Not talk about the US$ 100 million deposit of Teodoro Nguema Obiang and not mention anything, absolutely nothing about the Hong Kong story during the interrogatories.

The documents of Alogo go specially in depth when documenting the private economy of President Obiang and his son Teodorín. Themselves stating that they have no accounts abroad, Alogo documents how the President and the clan surrounding him are emptying the country of incredible amounts. 

This documentation comes from what used to be the inner circles of power in Equatorial Guinea. Afrol.com's attempts to verify or refute this information through contacting Equatorial Guinean officials have not resulted. Afrol.com for three days has tried to contact the Equatorial Guinean Government and embassies. The only persons we were able to contact said they were not authorized to put us in contact with any official. Afrol.com is far from the only media not being able to contact the Equatorial Guinean Government.

Sources: La Diáspora, Alogo, Bikomo

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