( CNN ) -- Dozens of the U.S. diplomatic cables obtained and published by WikiLeaks cover a worldwide phenomenon that has been persistently troubling to the United States : drug trafficking . And those cables come not just from Mexico City , but from many corners of the world -- including Cuba and several embassies in West Africa . Perhaps most revealing is the cooperation between the United States and Cuba over trafficking through Jamaica . A cable from August 2009 talks about multiple contacts between the U.S. Coast Guard and Cuban Interior Ministry . The Cubans were complaining that Jamaican smugglers were using `` both Cuban airspace and waters to transport narcotics ultimately destined for the United States , but their repeated attempts to engage Jamaica on the issue have been ignored . '' Cuban officials had shown one plane to a U.S. Coast Guard official . On their way to a rendezvous in Bahamian waters , the crew had made an emergency landing after allegedly dumping 13 bales of marijuana in a rural area of Cuba . In another case , information from the U.S. Coast Guard helped the Cuban Border Guard intercept a vessel carrying 700 kilograms of marijuana . The cable says that Cuban officials `` collectively and continually ... express frustration over the GOJ 's [ Jamaica 's ] consistent ignoring of Cuban attempts to increase the flow '' of drug-related information between the two island nations to increase interdictions and avoid `` being surprised by drugs . '' Despite translating information on boat and aircraft movements from Spanish to English , Cuban officials said their Jamaican counterparts rarely took action . But the Cubans were not about to give their ideological enemy a free pass . `` GOC [ Cuban ] officials ultimately blame the United States for this problem due to the high demand for illicit narcotics by United States consumers , '' concludes the cable . There seems as much concern about narcotics trafficking on the other side of the Atlantic , with Ghana becoming a focus . One cable from last year even reports the request of Ghanaian President John Atta Mills that screening devices be used for senior officials leaving the country `` to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs . '' `` The President told the Ambassador that he knows elements of his government are already compromised and that officials at the airport tipped off drug traffickers about operations there , '' according to another cable from 2009 . But the cable notes that previous scanning devices , known as itemizers , deployed to the VIP lounge at Accra airport had been sabotaged . It quotes one British official involved in combatting drugs in West Africa as saying `` the filters were removed . '' `` He noted that the cost of maintenance on the itemizers is less than the cost of diverting flights on which passengers suffer drug overdoses . Within the last few months ... KLM has diverted to Spain two flights from Accra to Amsterdam because passengers started vomiting drugs . In both cases , the passenger died . '' Another cable notes that the Ghanaian police had `` lost a large amount of drugs kept in their possession that was to be used as evidence in future trials . '' The United States was building a secure room at police headquarters in which to store evidence . But there had also been some successes . One day last year , a container that had arrived at the Ghanaian port of Tema marked as `` chewing gum '' raised the suspicion of customs officers `` because it originated in Ecuador rather than the Far East , as usual . '' They opened the container and found 71 kilograms of cocaine . Last year , three men were extradited from Ghana to face trial in New York for alleged links to Islamic extremists and drug traffickers , the `` unholy alliance '' that concerns U.S. , United Nations and European officials in West Africa . Two were from Mali , which also comes under scrutiny in the leaked cables . One , from February this year , covers the history of an ancient Boeing 727 variously registered in Saudi Arabia and Guinea-Bissau that had somehow become stranded at a desert airstrip in northern Mali in October 2009 . Not much surprise in that , as its airworthiness certificate had long ago expired . But that had not prevented someone from flying it across the Atlantic between Colombia and a dried-up lake bed in northern Mali , according to officials from Guinea-Bissau quoted in the cable . Just what the plane was carrying , and who was operating it , was still a mystery months after the crash because `` not even the Drug Brigade of the Malian Judiciary Investigation Police was allowed to make inquiries '' -- and the regional U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime was not informed of whatever investigation was carried out . Another cable from July of last year demonstrates the widespread concern of diplomats in West Africa about `` the institutionalization of drug and criminality in several West African countries , especially along the coast . '' One British diplomat `` indicated that the UK has a good understanding about how the drugs arrive to West Africa , but not how they go North from there and how they are related to terrorist issues . '' At the same meeting , a U.S. diplomat expressed concern that `` Hizbollah networks in West Africa might tap into the drug trade due to its high levels of profit . '' The Lebanese guerrilla movement has established connections in West Africa and South America , according to drug enforcement sources .
Cubans complained to Jamaica about drug smuggling . Comment: Cables show rising concern over West Africa . U.S. worried about drug profits funding terrorism .