The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
14 January 2012
editorial
Police Anti-Drug Unit head Godfrey Nzowa and his team deserve praise for their dedication to tracing the movement of illegal narcotic drugs countrywide.
The unit impounded a record 210 kilogrammes of heroin and arrested four suspects in Lindi Municipality on Thursday.
In September, they seized 97 kilogrammes of heroin worth Sh4.3 billion and arrested three Tanzanians and an Iranian suspect in Tanga.Two Pakistanis were arrested with 179 kilogrammes at Mbezi in Dar es Salaam in February.
The latest development confirms the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report that drug traffickers have turned some African countries, including Tanzania, into a cost-effective route for heroin shipment to Europe and elsewhere.
Given the tough restrictions on transiting through Asia and the Middle East, the drug traffickers are now taking advantage of our geographical location, porous borders and police inefficiency.
Intensified security checks in Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Bagamoyo ports lately have pushed the drug dealers into offloading their consignments on the south-eastern coast.
As we congratulate Nzowa’s team, we may want to consider New Year resolutions that go beyond committing ourselves to volunteering tip-offs, arrests, prosecution, convictions and meting out penalties. We should go for the Big One–eliminating drug trafficking and consumption by end of this year.
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