Drug control personnel on course, avers Mavunde

BY KATARE MBASHIRU AND SYLIVESTER DOMASA

THE Drug Control and Enforcement Authority (DCEA) has said it had pounced on 11,071 suspected drug dealers and peddlers by February 2018, just one year after its establishment.

The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (Labour, Youth, Employment and People withDisabilities), Mr Anthony Mavunde, told the National Assembly yesterday that out of these, some 3,486 were ‘big-time’ businesspeople dealing with illicit drugs
He was responding to a question from Special Seats MP Mwantumu Dau Haji, who sought government stand on what she termed as “slow pace in dealing with drug dealers and peddlers in the country.”
“I want the government to state its plan in the fight against drugs in the country,’’ she demanded. In his response, the deputy minister said all people who were arrested in connection with drug dealings had since been sent to court.
He boasted that within just a year, the Authority had made ‘tremendous achievements’ and that in fact, drug businesses had been ‘significantly’ reduced across the country.