Cape Verde only war for independence against Portugal between 1974 and 1975, the efforts of the Caboverdean Armed Forces have now been turned to combating international drug trafficking. In 2007, together with the Cape Verdean Police, they carried out Operation Flying Launch ("Operacão Lancha Voador"a), a successful operation to put an end to a drug trafficking group which smuggled cocaine from Colombia to the Netherlands and Germany using the country as a reorder point. The operation took more than three years, being a secret operation during the first two years, and ended in 2010. Although located in Africa, Cape Verde has always
Cape Verde–European Union relations African, whereas about 1% is of unmixed European descent. Because of this, Cape Verdeans find it hard to define themselves as either mixed or Africans. They regard themselves as either "both" or as "unique Cape Verdeans". Politically, Cape Verdeans also worked as part of the Portuguese administration, with independence leader Amílcar Cabral being part of the colonial administration in Guinea-Bissau and Angola. Cape Verde is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), an African regional bloc with aims for internal integration similar to those of the EU, and even though it has not yet participated in