VOA常速英语2008年-In Niger, Cargo Changes But Sahara Desert Traff

By Phuong Tran
Northern Niger
27 February 2008

For centuries, routes through the Sahara Desert have been used to transport goods. In recent years, 4x4 convoys² of cocaine³ and hashish have joined caravans⁴ bearing salt, cigarettes and fuel. VOA reporter Phuong Tran travels with a 24-year-old Algerian Tuareg smuggler⁵ through the Saharan desert, and brings VOA this third report in a week-long series.

The Sahara desert has long been an attractive tax-free zone for entrepreneurs. But getting products through the mostly inhospitable and hostile terrain⁶ is hard. There are no auto⁷ repair stores for spare parts. Little water. No signs. Everything looks the same.

Mohamed Ekisi, a former customs director in Niger, says nothing can get through the desert without ethnic⁸ Tuareg nomads⁹.

Ekisi says the desert Tuareg nomads have few job prospects¹⁰, so tourism and smuggling¹¹ are two ways they survive. Ekisi says the Tuareg have transported everything from migrants to fuel, pasta to powdered milk, fake famous-brand cigarettes to, increasingly, cocaine.

This Algerian Tuareg oil smuggler spins circles in the sand with his 4x4 vehicle. He says it helps throw off any law enforcement officers who try to track his oil smuggling route from Algeria to neighboring Niger.

Abdas Salam says he makes more than $2,000 per fuel delivery, but that half this money goes to his oil boss in Algeria, who pays for the stocks of fuel. He sells each 200-liter barrel for about $280. The 24-year-old says the biggest risks are running into bandits who try to steal the oil, or the occasional desert military or police patrol.

Salam says he pays about $50 per trip in bribes¹³, and has an assistant driver, while his only investment is his $6,000 truck, purchased in Algeria.

He says every month he makes more than $1,000, a large sum of money in the Sahara.

But customs officer Ekisi says this is nothing compared to what cocaine is earning a small group of risk-taking Tuareg transporters.

Drivers say they can make about $10,000 on one drug convoy¹ that starts in Algeria and ends in Sudan. Drug transporters interviewed for this report say they often travel in groups. Half of the 4x4 vehicles are armed escorts. The others carry the drugs. The drivers wait at Algeria's border with Mali or Mauritania for weeks or even months for the drug shipments. They remove their satellite phone batteries so law enforcement cannot track their locations via satellite.

They drive their trucks on desert routes extending from Morocco to Egypt. The drivers must buy new Landcruiser vehicles after only two trips because they cannot afford the risk of breaking down mid-desert.

 

Mohamed Ekisi says it is impossible to stop trafficking in the Sahara.

He says it is not possible to increase the money for the fight against drug trafficking because the cocaine smuggling operations have more money to fight back; bribing¹⁴ customs officers, militaries, police, and increasingly, rebels fighting their governments for more power over the desert.

The Tuareg have periodically taken up arms against the governments in Mali and Niger to demand more resources and rights. In Chad and Sudan, ethnic minority rebel groups have also been fighting the governments for years.

Ex-customs officer Ekisi says rebellions are a not a good thing for traffickers. He says it is preferable for the drivers to know who is in power. But he says the drug mafia has enough money to bribe¹² both rebels and their governments.

U.N. drug crimes investigators¹⁵ say 25 percent of the cocaine consumed in Europe now transits¹⁶ West Africa, passing through desert countries. Last year, they estimate 40 tons of cocaine moved through West Africa, undetected. That cargo¹⁷ has a wholesale¹⁸ value of more than $1 billion, and is worth about 10 times that amount on the streets of Europe.

Ekisi resigned from Nigerien customs last year when he says he grew tired of seeing his colleagues advance professionally and financially with drug bribes, which he refused to accept.

He has decided¹⁹ to go into business for himself, selling American Legend brand cigarettes-made in Dubai.

1 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

2 convoys   

n.（有护航的）船队( convoy的名词复数 )；车队；护航（队）；护送队

参考例句：

• Truck convoys often stop over for lunch here. 车队经常在这里停下来吃午饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A UN official said aid programs will be suspended until there's adequate protection for relief convoys. 一名联合国官员说将会暂停援助项目，直到援助车队能够得到充分的保护为止。 来自辞典例句

3 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

4 caravans   

（可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队）

参考例句：

• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles that are pulled by horses. 旧式的吉卜赛大篷车是由马拉的涂了颜色的木质车辆。
• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles. 旧时的吉普赛大篷车是涂了颜色的木质车辆。

5 smuggler   

n.走私者

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight, awaiting extradition to Britain. 这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• The smuggler was finally obliged to inform against his boss. 那个走私犯最后不得不告发他的首领。

6 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。

7 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

8 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

9 nomads   

n.游牧部落的一员( nomad的名词复数 )；流浪者；游牧生活；流浪生活

参考例句：

• For ten years she dwelled among the nomads of North America. 她在北美游牧民中生活了十年。
• Nomads have inhabited this region for thousands of years. 游牧民族在这地区居住已有数千年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

11 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

12 bribe   

n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通

参考例句：

• He tried to bribe the policeman not to arrest him.他企图贿赂警察不逮捕他。
• He resolutely refused their bribe.他坚决不接受他们的贿赂。

13 bribes   

n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• corrupt officials accepting bribes 接受贿赂的贪官污吏

14 bribing   

贿赂

参考例句：

• He tried to escape by bribing the guard. 他企图贿赂警卫而逃走。
• Always a new way of bribing unknown and maybe nonexistent forces. 总是用诸如此类的新方法来讨好那不知名的、甚或根本不存在的魔力。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

15 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 transits   

通过（transit的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The anomalistic year is the time between successive transits of the Earth through the perihelion. 近点年是地球连续两次通过近日点之间的时间。
• Paradigm study gradually transits to exemplification study in civil society theory. 当前我国的市民社会理论正逐步从范式研究转向范例研究。

17 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

18 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

19 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。