Tanzania is East Africa’s biggest hub for drugs trafficking, a
US government agency has said, putting Dar es Salaam on the radar of
international anti-narcotics spies.
A new report
released by the US department of State says that Tanzania-based drug
trafficking organisations and courier networks operate globally and play
a prominent role in the Southwest Asian heroin trade, using Dar es
Salaam as the launchpad to control the trade in East Africa.
Dar
es Salaam has been fingered as the region’s key transit point for
illicit drugs, facilitating the movement of multi-million-dollar
narcotics to Kenya, Uganda and Europe as a result of its porous borders
and poor policing.
The US Bureau for International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs report says Tanzania’s location,
porous borders, and persistent corruption present challenges to drugs
interdiction.
“Traffickers exploit Tanzania’s 1,300km
coastline and inadequate port security. Heroin is transported by small
vessels southward along Africa’s east coast to Zanzibar and the mainland
and in large quantities via land borders from Kenya, through Tanzania,
and onward to Mozambique for trans-shipment to Europe and North America.
Smaller quantities are trafficked to Europe, India and North America
largely via commercial air,” the report released on Monday reveals.
The
South American cocaine enters Tanzania by air for further international
distribution, the report says, while the country also produces cannabis
and khat for domestic consumption and regional distribution, even
though they remain illegal in the country.
New landing points
The
US also says Dar es Salaam and Mozambique have become the new landing
points for the narcotics brought through the Indian Ocean, after the
enhanced enforcement efforts undertaken by Kenyan authorities in recent
years.
“This has seen ocean-going dhows transporting
heroin into East Africa to bypass Kenya in favour of less protected
Tanzanian and Mozambican shores, with subsequent land transport to Kenya
or neighbouring Uganda,” the report says.
The drugs then find their way back to the Kenyan Coast via the porous borders it shares with Tanzania.
In
January, a US court sentenced Ibrahim Akasha, once a member of Kenya’s
Akasha drug trafficking empire to 23 years in prison after he pleaded
guilty to trafficking heroin and methamphetamine and other crimes.
Baktash Akasha, the Akasha organisation’s former leader, was sentenced to 25 years in prison last August.
This
assertion confirms a September 2018 Interpol report on narcotics trade
in the region, which notes that drug traffickers were using the Eastern
African coast as their open transit route for illicit drug trafficking
from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, India, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru with
destinations including South Africa, Europe, the US and Asia.
Ports for transit
“Eastern
African ports remain strategic points for drug trafficking, while other
Eastern African countries continue to be major transit points for drug
trafficking from Latin America and the Middle East to Europe and the
US,” the Interpol report notes, adding that Tanzania forms part of a
major trans-shipment route for heroin entering the region, but is not a
major end-market for consumption of the drugs.
Tanzanian
authorities last year seized a large haul of drugs acting on real-time
intelligence. In February, Tanzania’s Drug Control and Enforcement
Agency arrested prominent businessman, Abdul Nsebo and his wife Shamim
Mwasha, for alleged heroin trafficking.
In October, DCEA destroyed 120.9kg of seized heroin and cocaine, the highest ever seizure in the East African region.
In
August 2019, a US federal court sentenced 10 Tanzanian citizens for
their part in a transnational heroin trafficking ring, including Ali
Khatib Haji Hassan, an international drug kingpin designated and
sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury, who was extradited to
the US with two associates in 2017.
Tanzania’s exposure
has complicated the drug fight for Kenya, which bears the brunt of the
narcotics being smuggled through the long common border.
In
the first nine months of last year, Kenya’s narcotics enforcement
agency, the Anti-Narcotics Unit conducted over 1,500 raids, seizing over
56.8kgs of heroin, 7.9 tonnes of cannabis, as well as 3.6kgs of
cocaine, and over $177,000 in cash and property. Most of these seizures
were done in the coastal city of Mombasa, with the drugs being traced to
Tanzania, investigation sources said.
Most of the
raids and seizures were made possible through the use of modern
surveillance techniques and forensics, which saw the drug units of the
police conduct investigations in 2019 targeting police and judicial
officials involved in drug trafficking.
Washington has
also pointed an accusing finger at the Kenyan judiciary for doing little
to help in the fight against narcotics trade in the country, adding
that it “requires further improvements to effectively prosecute
drug-trafficking cases.”
“Kenya continues to face the
threat of drugs flowing to and through the country and the ancillary
corrupt activities associated with drug trafficking. Kenya’s government
will need to remain vigilant and aggressively pursue drug traffickers
and continue efforts at the grassroots level to reduce drugs demand,”
the report states.
The US still puts Kenya as a
significant transit country for a variety of illicit drugs, including
heroin and cocaine, and states that domestic drug consumption is
growing. Some chemicals used to produce methamphetamine and other
illicit drugs also continue to transit Kenya, according to the report.
Heroin routes
“Heroin
originating from Southwest Asia enters Kenya both from direct shipping
across the Indian Ocean from launch sites along the Makran Coast in
Pakistan and Iran, and, increasingly, from countries to the south,
transiting Tanzania and Mozambique. Most of the heroin entering Kenya is
destined for international markets across the globe, particularly in
Europe. Domestic heroin abuse is a growing threat in Kenya, particularly
in the coastal areas, including the main port city of Mombasa,” it
notes.
The US admits that Kenya’s law enforcement
continued efforts in 2019 to reduce the supply of heroin, cocaine,
marijuana and other drugs entering the country through increased
targeting of international traffickers.
“By targeting
drug trafficking organisations instead of individual traffickers, Kenya
can more effectively prevent large shipments of drugs from entering or
transiting Kenya. Multi-kilogram seizures of heroin are becoming more
frequent within Kenya, primarily due to the increased diligence and
capability of the Kenya Police Service,” the report notes.
According
to Washington, cocaine enters Kenya primarily via direct flights from
South America to Ethiopia with subsequent land transport to Kenya,
through the porous Northern borders. This year alone, four police
officers based in the northern frontier have been arrested using
government vehicles transporting narcotics, lending credence to these
assertions by the Americans.
“Kenya has seen an
increase in cocaine investigations over the past year. Limited maritime
enforcement capabilities on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coastline hampers drug
interdiction,” it said.
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