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
Bank of Cape Verde Bank of Cape Verde The Bank of Cape Verde () is Cape Verde's central bank. Its headquarter is located on Avenida Amílcar Cabral, in the national capital of Praia on the island of Santiago. Its current governor is João António Pinto Coelho Serra, who is in office since December 2014. The government established the Bank of Cape Verde in 1975, as a bank that combined commercial banking and central banking functions. The government created the bank by nationalizing the operations of the Portuguese colonial and overseas bank, Banco Nacional Ultramarino, which had established its first branch in Cape Verde in