(CNN) -- Colombian and Mexican drug cartels have jumped the Atlantic Ocean and expanded into West Africa, working closely with local criminal gangs to carve out a staging area for an assault on the lucrative European market. Authorities destroy cannabis found in Ivory Coast. West Africa is appealing to drug traffickers from Latin America. The situation has gotten so out of hand that tiny Guinea-Bissau, the fifth-poorest nation in the world, is being called Africa's first narco-state. Others talk about how Africa's Gold Coast has become the Coke Coast. In all, officials say, at least nine top-tier Latin American drug cartels have established bases in 11 West African nations.
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Guinea-Bissau, fifth-poorest nation in the world, is called Africa's first narco-state
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Officials: At least nine Latin American drug cartels have set up bases in West Africa
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West Africa has little law enforcement, making it easier for traffickers there
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More money can be made selling drugs to Europe than to the U.S., officials say
About 27 percent of the cocaine that entered @placeholder in 2006 came from Africa, the United Nations said.