According to the Department of Justice, Southern District of Texas, Malam Bacai Sanha Jr., 52, pleaded guilty on September 6, 2023, to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance for the purpose of unlawful importation.
The son of Guinea-Bissau's ex-president has been sentenced to over six years in prison by a US court for leading an international heroin trafficking ring.
According to the Department of Justice, Southern District of Texas, Malam Bacai Sanha Jr., 52, pleaded guilty on September 6, 2023, to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance for the purpose of unlawful importation.
At the hearing, the court heard Sanha was intending to use drug proceeds to finance his future campaign for president in 2025 and a coup in that country.
In handing down the sentence, the court noted Sanha was a leader and organizer in the heroin trafficking conspiracy and was directly involved in its importation from Europe to the United States.
The court also found his drug trafficking activities to be extensive.
“The expansive reach of transnational criminal networks, like the one Sanha ran, presents a serious threat to the safety and health of all communities,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
“Sanha and his associates intended to distribute kilograms of heroin to the United States at a time when Americans lose their lives to drug overdose every day. This prosecution represents our office’s unwavering determination, together with our U.S. and international partners, to target and bring to justice violent criminals who lead transnational drug trafficking organizations that continue to flood our country with dangerous drugs.”
“The success of this investigation is the result of careful coordination between our federal, state, local and international partners,” said Special Agent in Charge Daniel C. Comeaux of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Houston Division.
Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams of the FBI Houston Field Office said, “Malam Bacai Sanha Jr. wasn’t any ordinary international drug trafficker.”
“He is the son of the former president of Guinea-Bissau and was trafficking drugs for a very specific reason - to fund a coup that would eventually lead him to the presidency of his native country where he planned to establish a drug regime.
“Fortunately, FBI Houston agents and our partners at the DEA thwarted his attempts, with the cooperation of our international partners. Crime has a global reach and impact, and so does the FBI.”
Sanha was the leader of a transnational criminal organization and worked with co-conspirators and international individuals to import heroin from various countries into Portugal.
With the assistance of co-conspirators, Sanha provided 4.7 kilograms of heroin to an undercover member of law enforcement in Lisbon, Portugal, in February and March 2022. He further agreed to deliver the heroin on at least three occasions, believing it would be unlawfully imported into the United States.
On July 23, 2022, Tanzanian law enforcement arrested Sanha pursuant to domestic criminal charges, along with a co-conspirator, upon their arrival in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
The United States presented a formal request for Sanha’s extradition to the government of Tanzania, which the Tanzanian courts granted on August 5, 2022.
The Tanzanian Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs signed the formal surrender order on August 16, 2022. Sanha and his co-conspirator arrived in the Southern District of Texas on August 26, 2022.
Sanha will remain in custody pending his transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
Photo credit: AFP