Drug trafficking former Navy Chief asks the President for his job back

A former Guinea-Bissau navy chief who was convicted in the US of drug trafficking has asked the president if he can resume his military career, reports the AFP news agency.

"I have returned from a trip which took me away from the country for three years. It's normal that on my return that I come and see the armed forces' commander in chief," Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto told reporters.

He was captured off the West African coast by US agents in 2013.

The indictment against him said he and two others were middlemen in a huge drug-smuggling operation which transported cocaine by vessel from South America to Guinea-Bissau, and then to store the cocaine in Guinea-Bissau before its shipment to other locations, including the United States.

Na Tchuto pleaded guilty at his trial in May 2014 and was detained in the US until his sentencing on 4 October.

He was sentenced to four years in jail by a New York federal court this month but was released for time already served and has returned home, the agency adds.