By Allan Olingo, Nairobi
KENYA
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.
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.
“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
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. - The East African
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