Pubdate: Sat, 24 Mar 2007
Source: New Vision (Uganda)
Copyright: 2007 New Vision
Contact:  http://www.newvision.co.ug/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/522
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

HEROIN TRAFFICKERS TARGET SCHOOLS

HASSAN Mbogo, a Tanzanian carrying a Ugandan passport, was arrested 
on December 1 at Entebbe Airport. He came aboard Emirates Airlines, 
from Tehran and through Dubai to Uganda.

Mbogo matched the profile of a drug trafficker, so when he arrived, 
he was taken into an observation hall and given some food. Sure 
enough, he passed out 64 pellets (640g) of heroin. He pleaded guilty 
to drug trafficking and got away with a sh1m fine.

Two weeks later, Ally Abdul Mohamed, also Tanzanian, also arrived on 
an Emirates aircraft from Tehran, was arrested and subjected to the 
same treatment. He passed out 107 pellets of heroin, weighing 1.7 kg. 
He confessed and was fined sh1m.

These are only two of an increasing number of drug traffickers 
arrested at Entebbe Airport in possession of heroin. In the last week 
of December alone, five people were found with the drugs in their 
bodies. Most traffickers were freed after paying a fine of sh1m or 
less. Only a few were imprisoned, with the longest jail term being 14 
months. Abbab Munir Ahmed, a Pakistani national, was jailed for one 
year in February for smuggling 3kg of heroin in his stomach.

Drug traffickers usually come from Tehran via Dubai, aboard Emirates 
or Ethiopian Airlines. Several have Ugandan passports. Light 
penalties and easy access to Ugandan passports make the country an 
attractive place for drug traffickers.

The traffickers, largely foreign nationals, use the country mainly as 
a transit route between Asian suppliers and Western consumers. 
However, they are also increasingly targeting the children of the 
rich in Kampala.

"Because of the weak laws we have in Uganda, traffickers find it 
convenient to transit through Uganda," said Okoth Ochola, the Deputy 
Director of the Department of Criminal Investigations.

"The current law -- the National Drug Policy and Authority Act -- is 
too lenient. If you are convicted under that Act, you are either sent 
to prison for one year or you pay a fine of not more than sh1m. Drug 
traffickers, who make millions of dollars, would rather risk being 
convicted in Uganda than in countries like Iran or Malaysia, where it 
is a capital offence, carrying the death penalty." Attempts to revise 
the law seem to have hit a dead end.

"A draft Bill has been pending for over five years but it has never 
been tabled before Parliament," Ochola added.

According to Police statistics, a total of 17.7kg of heroin with a 
total street value of sh479m in addition to 182.8kg of cannabis, 
worth sh250m, was recovered in 2006. But a source involved in the 
drug investigations told Sunday Vision that the figures may not be 
representative of the situation on the ground. "The seizures may not 
represent the reality of the trafficking activities in Uganda. Our 
Police do not have adequate capacity to detect drugs," the source 
said. Efforts to curb drug trafficking in Uganda have been limited to 
profiling possible traffickers and observing passengers at the 
airport, which has an international success rate of only about 20%.

Despite the presence of two sniffer dogs at the airport, neither the 
passengers nor the cargo are checked.

"We don't check cargo in the planes. Only when we have information 
that there could be something concealed do we use the sniffer dogs," 
said Robert Ojaba, the acting officer in charge of narcotics.

Part of the profiling is done in the country from which the passenger comes.

"When passengers come from countries like Pakistan and Iran, we put 
them under surveillance and then look at their travel documents to 
see how long they have stayed in those countries," Ojaba said. He 
said the most common method of concealment was by swallowing pellets 
made of hard polythene bags, which cannot dissolve in the stomach. 
Each pellet contains about 10g of heroin.

"The traffickers are usually not comfortable and walk with a lot of 
difficulty. They are also under strict instructions not to eat on the 
plane as the moment they eat, the drugs will come out. They, 
therefore, look dizzy and exhausted."

Swallowing heroin pellets is not without risk. John Mwanjabala was 
arrested at Entebbe Airport on December 4. He passed out 95 pellets 
of heroin. However, while relieving himself, something went wrong. 
One pellet burst. He was rushed to Entebbe Hospital where he died 
three days later. Though most of the drugs entering Uganda are 
destined for Western markets, some are meant for the Ugandan market. 
"The consumption of these expensive drugs has extended to children 
from powerful families in some of the upper-class schools and 
universities," a source in the Police said. Some of the victims are 
being counselled in drug rehabilitation centres in the city.

"Nowadays you see many youth using drugs," said David Amanya, the 
director of the National Care Centre in Bweyogerere, Kampala. "Our 
centre, which is supposed to take only 15 people, is overwhelmed. The 
number of those coming here to seek treatment as a result of drug 
abuse is on the rise." Though the Police claim they have no knowledge 
of heroin being sold on the streets of Kampala, Amanya said there are 
shops selling drugs all over the city. "The drugs are being sold 
openly. One gramme of heroin goes for as little as sh30,000," he said.

Witnesses say heroin is in circulation at a popular shopping mall in 
central Kampala as well as busy hang-outs in the city's suburbs.

"Shops in expensive malls selling goods that have low demand are 
usually fronts for drug dealers," the source said. Parents and head 
teachers are not willing to talk about the problem, for fear of 
stigma or negative publicity. However, teachers privately admit that 
heroin and cocaine are a problem in their schools.

"Last year we discovered that six foreign pupils in Standard Six were 
involved in taking heroin," said a teacher in one of the 
international schools. "When we talked to one of them, he told us he 
had learned the habit at home. We are trying to control it by 
engaging counsellors." The drug traffickers reportedly have agents in 
the schools, usually drug addicts who receive a commission each time 
they get a new client.

Affected parents, who want to remain anonymous, complain that their 
children steal at home in order to buy the drugs.

A former drug addict told Sunday Vision that heroin was being sold in 
Kampala in different forms.

"There is one which comes in solid form, is melted on a coin and one 
can snort it through the nose using a straw. A second type comes in 
the form of an injection. The third type is mixed with food," he 
said. Fighting the drug mafia has proven an extremely difficult task 
all over the world, not just in Uganda.

"Dismantling the syndicates and arresting the kingpins is complicated 
given the level of secrecy, strengthened by a sworn code of silence. 
There is little or no contact between the kingpins and the couriers," 
said a Police source.

Investigations reveal that many of those arrested are lured into the 
trade after promises of a better life. "We have arrested some 
students who had been promised tuition fees, money, lucrative 
businesses and cars in return for carrying the drugs," Ojaba said.

Investigations have also shown that elements within the Police were 
in the past involved in the drug business. The commission of inquiry 
chaired by Justice Julia Sebutinde that probed the Police revealed 
that some senior police officers were protecting drug dealers.

Another source told Sunday Vision that the Inspector General of 
Police has ordered an inventory of the drug section, following 
allegations that seized drugs could have found their way back onto the market.

Lack of a harmonised legislature in the region makes it difficult to 
curb the illegal trade. Neighbouring Kenya took a drastic step in the 
war on drugs in 1993, when penalties for drug trafficking were 
increased to life imprisonment, as well as fines of Kenyan sh1m, 
equivalent to Ugandan sh25m.

A recent report by the United Nations warns of serious consequences 
if the present trend is not checked. "As a spill-over effect of the 
ongoing transit trafficking in heroin in the sub-region, the abuse of 
heroin has become a problem in East Africa. It is feared that if left 
unchecked, the problem of drug trafficking in Africa might further 
exacerbate existing social, economic and political problems."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman