The US Justice Department revealed on Tuesday that Malam Bacai Sanha Jr., aged 52 and son of a former president of Guinea-Bissau, has been sentenced to over six and a half years in prison.
This comes in light of his involvement in a transnational heroin trafficking conspiracy. According to statements from the US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Sanha Jr. had intended to utilize the profits from the trafficking to orchestrate a coup in Guinea-Bissau, with aspirations of assuming the presidency and establishing what was described as a “drugs regime” in the West African nation.
“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 very specific reason – to fund a coup.”
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According to the statement, Sanha played a pivotal role as a leader and coordinator in a heroin trafficking scheme, overseeing its importation from Europe to the United States.
He was apprehended alongside a collaborator upon their arrival in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in July 2022, and subsequently extradited to the United States.
Sanha pleaded guilty in September 2023 to charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance with the intent of unlawful importation, as stated on Tuesday. He received a prison sentence of 80 months.
