CONAKRY (AFP) — The eldest son of late Guinean president Lansana Conte was put in jail Tuesday pending a trial on charges of cocaine trafficking, police sources told AFP.
Ousmane Conte, whose father died in December after leading the west African nation with an iron fist for 24 years, was transferred from a military hospital to the Conakry prison, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Two of Ousmane Conte's close allies who were arrested with him in February have also been charged with drug trafficking and detained.
Conte's death was followed by a coup last December that put an army captain, Moussa Dadis Camara, at the head of a military junta. Camara has vowed to crack down on corruption and drugs smuggling.
In a televised interrogation from his hospital bed in late February, Ousmane Conte told the junta's counter-narcotics chief Moussa Tiegboro Camara that he was "involved in drug trafficking in Guinea".
In the broadcast Conte's son also said that despite his involvement he was not a ringleader and asked for forgiveness from the Guinean people.
Last summer Conte's name was linked to a probe sparked when a small plane carrying cocaine from neighbouring Guinea-Bissau landed in Boke, about 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Conakry.
Late president Conte's brother-in-law Saturnin Bangoura was among those charged with drug trafficking.
In the past few months several high ranking police officials have also been arrested and charged in connection with drug smuggling.
According to an October 2008 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), west Africa is becoming an important transit point for drugs coming from South America en route to the lucrative European markets.
The report said that since 2006 more than 20 percent of drug smugglers caught in Europe and Africa started their journey in Guinea.
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