The son of a former president of Guinea-Bissau faced the consequences of allegations as he was sentenced to more than six and a half years in prison for his participation in a transnational heroin trafficking plot, as declared by the US Justice Department on Tuesday.
According to a statement from the US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Malam Bacai Sanha Jr., aged 52, allegedly devised a plan to utilize the funds for orchestrating a coup within the West African nation, with aspirations of ascending to the presidency and instituting what was described as a “narco-state.”
Sanha was identified as a central figure and coordinator within the heroin trafficking conspiracy, facilitating its importation from Europe to the United States, as detailed in the statement.
Upon their arrival in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in July 2022, he and a co-conspirator were apprehended, leading to their subsequent extradition to the United States shortly thereafter.
According to the statement released on Tuesday, Sanha confessed “to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance for the purpose of unlawful importation” in September 2023.
He was sentenced to 80 months in prison.
Throughout its post-colonial history, Guinea-Bissau has experienced a cycle of military coups alongside intermittent stretches of democratic leadership, during which elected representatives successfully fulfilled their mandates following independence from Portugal in 1974.
Initially appointed by a junta in 1999, Malam Bacai Sanha, the father of Sanha, served as an interim leader before facing electoral defeat the following year.
Securing the presidency in the 2009 election, he tragically passed away during medical treatment in Paris in January 2012, prior to finishing his term.
Familiarly called “Bacaizinho” in Guinea-Bissau, his son has assumed multiple governmental positions, notably fulfilling the role of economic advisor to his father.