Via Álvaro Uribe’s tweet,

“FARC using al-Qaeda networks to bring in cocaine in Sahel FARC-coke-al-Qaeda”

Farc usan redes de Al Qaeda para introducir cocaína en Sahel Farc-coca -AlQaeda http://t.co/Qb8d7VE3AY via @elespectador

— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) December 9, 2014

The EFE article (in Spanish, my translation) FARC Using al-Qaeda Networks to Bring in Cocaine in Sahel

The FARC attempt to bring cocaine into Europe through the Sahel [note: a band of desert stretching across Africa – from Senegal in the West to Eritrea in the East], and are relying on Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) networks active on the Argelia, Mali and Mauritania border, according to Monday’s Al Massae Moroccan newspaper.

The newspaper, quoting an official report, explains that the FARC use the Sahel as springboard to Europe, after entering through Argelia and Morocco.

According to sources, AQIM charges the FARC a 15% “tax” on the cocaine value to guarantee a sage passage through the vast area it controls from the Western Sahara to north Mali, Mauritania y Argelia.

This alleged collusion between the FARC and AQIM translates into heavier weapons traffic in the zone, believed to be paid by the drug trade.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has gone on the record supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

The Telegraph has an interactive Al-Qaeda map: Isis, Boko Haram and other affiliates’ strongholds across Africa and Asia

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb
Operates in the Saharan countries – mainly in southern Algeria and Libya, Mauritania, Mali and Niger. Formed from a hard-core of fighters involved in Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s, in which Islamist fighters took arms after a democratically-elected Islamic government was ousted. Briefly set up its own fiefdom in northern Mali in 2012, before being ousted by French-led security force in January 2013. Makes a living by kidnapping foreigners, earning an estimated $60m from ransoms in the last decade.

And Colombia’s president wants unelected FARC members in the Senate, and broadening the definition of “political crime” to include drug trafficking, but only for FARC members.

[Post corrected for more accurate translation.]