THE former navy chief of Guinea-Bissau is in custody in New York and due to is go before a judge after being arrested on international cocaine trafficking allegations, officials said.
A spokesman for the Manhattan federal prosecutor's office told AFP that Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto was in custody in the city, where he was taken after a high seas arrest.
"His arraignment will be today," the spokesman said.
The indictment against Na Tchuto -- better known as Bubo in his deeply impoverished West African homeland -- and two other defendants, Papis Djeme and Tchamy Yala, alleges they were middlemen in a huge drug smuggling operation originating in Latin America.
They "worked together to receive ton-quantities of cocaine, transported by vessel from South America to Guinea-Bissau, and then to store the cocaine in Guinea-Bissau before its shipment to other locations, including the United States," the indictment says.
Prosecutors confirmed that Bubo was arrested following a sting operation in which he allegedly believed he was dealing with a cocaine broker and a cocaine supplier from South America. Both were actually working for the US anti-narcotics body, the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA.
The United States placed Bubo on a list of suspected drug barons in 2010, imposing a US travel ban and asset freeze.
The former admiral is accused of exploiting instability in his coup-plagued homeland to turn the tiny country into a major smuggling hub, with cocaine being shipped both to the United States and into Portugal.
The sting was set up around August and ran until now, according to the indictment.
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