Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- West African smugglers are shipping $2 billion worth of Andean cocaine a year to Europe Union countries and becoming a powerful criminal network that threatens to destabilize regional governments, the United Nations said.

``The threat is spreading through the region, turning the Gold Coast into the Coke Coast,'' Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said in an e-mailed statement released today. ``West Africa is at risk of becoming an epicenter for drug trafficking and the crime and corruption associated with it.''

At least 50 tons of South American cocaine traverses the Atlantic Oceans and winds up in Mali, Nigeria and Senegal every year. Most of the haul, which the UN calls the ``tip of the iceberg,'' is carried to Western Europe on commercial flights. African criminal gangs then distribute it around the continent from their main transit points in the U.K., France and Spain.

The Vienna-based Office on Drugs and Crime released a report on West Africa's drug networks today at a conference in Praia, Cape Verde. The agency calls for African nations to stamp out drug-related corruption and coordinate crime-fighting strategies.

``Time is running out,'' Costa said. ``It is a threat to public health and security in West Africa.''

The UN is urging West African countries to set up an intelligence-sharing organization before the trade destabilizes the region.

Cocaine seizures from West Africa have annually doubled since 2005, with 6,458 kilograms (14,237 pounds) intercepted last year. More seizures, including a 600-kilogram haul taken from a fake Sierra Leone Red Cross plane, have been made in 2008, the UN said in the report.

The Andes Mountains nations of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru last year had more than 175,000 hectares (432,250 acres) of land planted with coca leaf, the plant from which cocaine is derived, the UN said in September.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 28, 2008 03:08 EDT