The 'Mail & Guardian' has published a feature report on drug couriers who cross the borders of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, smuggling drugs from Tanzania to South Africa in what is a racket of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines worth millions.
The drugs are peddled to poor and rich customers alike according to interviews of anti-drug agency officials and direct judicial accounts, which confirm that the problem has been raising ever greater concerns.
Last year, two young Tanzanians died after some of the bags they swallowed about 80 hours earlier had
The drugs are peddled to poor and rich customers alike according to interviews of anti-drug agency officials and direct judicial accounts, which confirm that the problem has been raising ever greater concerns.
Last year, two young Tanzanians died after some of the bags they swallowed about 80 hours earlier had
started to leak. In July, two girls, also from Tanzania, were arrested after being found in possession of bags containing drugs worth more than 42 million rand, more than three million Euros.
"The couriers – writes the Mail & Guardian – take advantage of the fact that they do not need a visa for stays of less than 90, allowing them to move freely between countries."
This year South African police seized a consignment of 860,000 mandrax tablets, a synthetic drug which is particularly popular in the country, and which was destined for 'markets' in the Western Cape region after being imported from Botswana. Another danger is represented by cocaine, cut and mixed with other substances and sold at just 25 rand per gram, or less than two Euros.
In a report published last year, the UN Office for the fight against drugs and organized crime (UNODC) pointed out that Tanzania has become a key hub of drug trafficking in Africa. According to UN experts, Tanzania serves as the entry point in southern Africa for heroin produced in Afghanistan, mandrax from India and China and cocaine from Latin America. The Mail & Guardian shows that drug couriers are often women, who, in some cases, are very young. According to Edom Mwaikambo, the representative of the Tanzanian community in the city of Durban, in South Africa only a quarter of his countrymen have a "legal" job.
[VG/BO]
source: MISNA.org
"The couriers – writes the Mail & Guardian – take advantage of the fact that they do not need a visa for stays of less than 90, allowing them to move freely between countries."
This year South African police seized a consignment of 860,000 mandrax tablets, a synthetic drug which is particularly popular in the country, and which was destined for 'markets' in the Western Cape region after being imported from Botswana. Another danger is represented by cocaine, cut and mixed with other substances and sold at just 25 rand per gram, or less than two Euros.
In a report published last year, the UN Office for the fight against drugs and organized crime (UNODC) pointed out that Tanzania has become a key hub of drug trafficking in Africa. According to UN experts, Tanzania serves as the entry point in southern Africa for heroin produced in Afghanistan, mandrax from India and China and cocaine from Latin America. The Mail & Guardian shows that drug couriers are often women, who, in some cases, are very young. According to Edom Mwaikambo, the representative of the Tanzanian community in the city of Durban, in South Africa only a quarter of his countrymen have a "legal" job.
[VG/BO]
source: MISNA.org
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