The US Justice Department declared on Tuesday that Malam Bacai Sanha Jr, son of a former president of Guinea-Bissau, has been sentenced to over six and a half years in prison for his involvement in a transnational heroin trafficking scheme.
According to the statement released by the US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Sanha, aged 52, intended to utilize the profits to orchestrate a coup in Guinea-Bissau, aiming for his ascendancy to the presidency and the establishment of a “drugs regime.”
“Malam Bacai Sanha Jr. wasn’t any ordinary international drug trafficker,” said Douglas Williams, special agent in charge of the FBI Houston Field Office.
“He is the son of the former president of Guinea-Bissau and was trafficking drugs for a particular reason – to fund a coup.”
According to the statement, Sanha was involved in organizing and leading the heroin trafficking conspiracy, facilitating the importation of drugs from Europe to the United States.
He, alongside a co-conspirator, was apprehended in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in July 2022, and subsequently extradited to the US. In September 2023, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to drug distribution and unlawful importation, resulting in an 80-month prison sentence.
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