3k drug peddlers arrested

Security authorities have apprehended over 3 000 drug peddlers as part of intensified efforts to curb the scourge of substance abuse.

Addressing a post-Cabinet briefing in Harare yesterday, the minister of Defence, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, said the government needed more resources from the Treasury to deploy the latest technology to detect drug smuggling into the country.

“The inter-ministerial committee on the National Response to Drug and Substance Abuse has to date achieved significant progress in mitigating and ultimately eliminating the drug and substance abuse scourge in Zimbabwe.

“The committee’s strategic thrust centred mainly on supply chain reduction, rehabilitation and legal enforcement efforts. Under the Supply Reduction Pillar, the government targeted drug suppliers, distributors and end-users, resulting in 3,193 accused persons being apprehended. A total of 2,113 accused persons were also arraigned before the courts while 493 convictions were secured. The crackdown also netted 461 drug suppliers and 2,731 individual end-users, and 52 drug bases being dismantled countrywide.

“Regulatory compliance inspections for medicines were conducted across 419 public and private health institutions, resulting in 29 premises being fined and closed. The strategic interventions are yielding benefits in disrupting illicit drugs supply networks,” said Muchinguri-Kashiri, who chairs the inter-ministerial committee on the National Response to Drug and Substance Abuse.

She added that the government seeks to strengthen the institutional arrangement for drug enforcement and the deployment of technology.

“We need to strengthen the psycho-social support services through the establishment of a specialised National Drug and Substance Abuse Control and Enforcement Agency. In the era of technology, we recommended as a committee that we up the game at the border by injecting resources to make sure that we build the capacity of those manning the border areas to identify these drugs so that we can stop them from coming into the country. Concerning the unmanned points of entry, the problem is that we cannot deploy adequate human capital, the law enforcing agencies along the border.

“We are now benchmarking with other countries that are now advancing; they are employing drones for patrolling the border areas where we cannot deploy. They are also using radars. We have learned that drones are also used to transport drugs into other countries. The drug peddlers have become so sophisticated that this is an area where we have come up with budgets. We have presented those budgets to the Minister of Finance (Mthuli Ncube) and we are assured that resources will be allocated. We won’t hesitate to make sure that we deploy this technology at entry points,” Muchinguri-Kashiri said.

This comes after the government last year gazetted the National Drug and Substance Abuse Control and Enforcement Bill, which seeks to establish a specialised agency to enforce laws targeting drug trafficking and substance abuse in the country.