SINKREBAKA, Mali — The burntout wreck of a Boeing 727 lies abandoned in the Sahara desert, what is left of it covered by a little more ochre sand every day.
UN officials say the plane landed in the remote northeastern area of Mali in West Africa in early November with a load of cocaine and other illegal goods from Venezuela in South America.
Coming in on a makeshift runway, it unloaded its cargo and was then destroyed.
The UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) first announced it had crashed and caught fire after takeoff. Investigators said later that it had been set alight, probably by the traffickers who had fetched the lucrative load.
Empty fuel containers nearby are evidence of what likely happened in Sinkrebaka, a remote area about 200 kilometres (124 miles) north of the Mali town of Gao, far from the eyes of the law and out of the range of radar.
The incident is an example of what officials say is West Africa's growing role in an international drugs trade and is fuelling militancy that is destabilising the region.
Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure announced national and international inquiries. The crew of the plane had set it ablaze to make any trace "disappear," he said last month.
UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa used the incident to sound the alarm to the UN Security Council this week about "terrorists and anti-government forces" in Africa's northern Sahel belt using drugs revenues to fund their operations.
Drug trafficking in the region "is taking on a whole new dimension," he told the meeting on Tuesday.
"In the past, trade across the Sahara was by caravans. Today it is larger in size, faster at delivery, and more high-tech, as evidenced by the debris of a Boeing 727 found on 2 November in the Gao region of Mali -- an area affected by insurgency and terrorism.
"It is scary that this new example of the links between drugs, crime and terrorism was discovered by chance, following the plane crash," the UNODC's executive director said.
The area of Mali where the plane was discovered is a stomping ground of Islamist militants, Tuareg rebels and smugglers of all kinds.
About 50 to 60 tons of cocaine is trafficked through West Africa a year, particularly Guinea-Bissau, according to the UNODC. Most of it is headed to European markets.
While cocaine moves through West Africa, heroin transits through the eastern part of the continent, Costa said.
Drugs are becoming "a sort of new currency in the area," he warned.
"Drugs not only enrich organised crime ... terrorists and anti-government forces in the Sahel extract resources from the drug trade to fund their operations, purchase equipment and pay footsoldiers."
The trunk of the destroyed Boeing 727 is not much more than a pile of scrap metal. The wings have been detached from the body.
Close to the wreck are the remains of a traditional Tuareg meal -- perhaps left behind by men who could have spent hours using saws and other tools to tear off bits of metal to sell.
Late November, authorities in Mali arrested three people for dismantling the the plane, a Malian official close to the inquiry said.
They were transferred to the Mali capital, Bamako, for questioning and suspected of trying to destroy any evidence of the aircraft. They were later set free, the official said.
Tyretracks in the sand of the makeshift runway could be from those who fetched the illicit cargo.
The vehicles were registered in neighbouring Niger and one of the brains behind the operation was also believed to be in one of the countries across the border, said an official close to the case.
"We are convinced that the plan was transporting many other prohibited products. Investigations are under way," said a foreign security officer in the area.
While Mali authorities are investigating, so is Interpol. "The enquiry should progress very quickly," said the officer.
The cocaine plane abandoned far off in the Sahara desert could soon reveal its secrets.
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