5 days ago
High Cocoa Prices Drive Smuggling Surge, Alarming Traders
By and Baudelaire Mieu
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At the town of Gbapleu, a rope tied between two metal barrels separates Ivory Coast from Guinea. A thin trickle of traffic passes through the border post, mostly motorbikes or cars stuffed with passengers and overburdened with food and household items tied to their roofs.
For those who want to avoid the scrutiny of officials, there are other routes. Scattered throughout the region are dirt tracks that snake through the forests and grassland. After dark, motorcycle couriers arrive at warehouses in Ivorian towns near the frontier and load up with two or three sacks of cocoa, each weighing about 65 kilograms (143 pounds). From around 10pm, the riders set out for the border in a convoy, dodging the checkpoints to carry beans into Guinea.
