How'd that get in there? A mayor in northern Niger scratched his head in bafflement when authorities searched his official truck and found $9 million worth of cocaine and cannabis in it.
Niger ranks high on the Organized Crime Index for drug smuggling and organized crime.
A number of violent extremist organizations act as quasi-mafia-style groups in Niger. Tramadol is sold by mafia networks made up primarily of Malian nationals. Government officials at all levels are suspected to be involvement in drug, human and gold smuggling and there have been a number of corruption and alleged embezzlement scandals in Niger in recent years.
The U.S. doesn't look that great on the OC Index either, to be honest:
Drug trafficking groups, mainly networks and gangs, dominate the attention of US investigators and prosecutors. There are thousands of active gangs nationwide, whose activities focus on drug, arms and human trafficking. Most use violence and work alongside foreign drug trafficking networks. Despite a decrease in activity, mafia-style groups continue to operate in the US, including five major family groups descending from the Cosa Nostra Sicilian mafia, all of which exert substantial control in New York, southern New Jersey and Philadelphia. Collectively, Cosa Nostra has thousands of US-based members and associates involved in illegal markets, including heroin trafficking, money laundering and healthcare fraud targeting the Medicare programme. These groups have significant access to weapons and carry arms openly. Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, of which there are several hundred operating across the country, are the archetypal mafia-style group in the US. The gangs are highly transnational in nature and are predominantly involved in the drug trafficking market, particular cross-border trafficking.
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Government corruption may also be on the rise, although investigations and prosecutions have been declining. Some in former president Donald Trump's inner circle were convicted on federal charges of money laundering and other illicit activities, and Trump himself was accused of engaging with mafia-style groups before taking office.
