Malam Bacai Sanha Jr, aged 52, has been handed a prison sentence of more than six and a half years for his involvement in a transnational heroin trafficking scheme, as announced by the US Justice Department on Tuesday.
According to the statement released by the US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Sanha planned to utilize the proceeds from the drug trafficking to finance a coup in Guinea-Bissau, with aspirations of assuming the presidency and establishing what was termed a “drugs regime”.
Special Agent Douglas Williams of the FBI Houston Field Office emphasized, “Malam Bacai Sanha Jr. wasn’t any ordinary international drug trafficker. He is the son of the former president of Guinea-Bissau and was trafficking drugs for a very specific reason – to fund a coup.”
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Sanha played a significant role as a leader and organizer in the heroin trafficking conspiracy, facilitating its importation from Europe to the United States, as outlined in the statement.
He was apprehended alongside a co-conspirator upon arrival in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in July 2022, and subsequently extradited to the United States. In September 2023, Sanha pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance for the purpose of unlawful importation.”
The sentencing, as per Tuesday’s statement, amounted to 80 months in prison.
Guinea-Bissau has a history marked by military coups and intermittent democratic governance since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974. Sanha’s father, Malam Bacai Sanha, served as interim leader following a junta’s installation in 1999 and later won the presidency in 2009 before his passing in January 2012 while seeking medical treatment in Paris.
Known as “Bacaizinho” in Guinea-Bissau, Sanha Jr has held various government positions, including serving as an economic advisor to his father.
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