Saturday, 11 June 2011 22:30

The Citizen Reporter

http://thecitizen.co.tz/component/content/article/37-tanzania-top-news-story/11842-untouchable-drug-lords.html

Dar es Salaam. Following the arrest in Dar es Salaam on June 1, of one of the people recently named by American President Barack Obama as international drug kingpins, Tanzanian authorities have come under intense pressure to lift the lid on the network of influential personalities suspected of dealing in narcotics.The anti-narcotics police, who carried out the successful operation at Mbezi Beach,  have been in overdrive since it emerged that the prime suspect, Ms Naima Mohammed Nyakiniywa, who was also on the list President Obama issued, could have been running an active drug trafficking cell in Tanzania.  

Ms Nyakiniywa, who is said to be a Kenyan, was arrested in the affluent seaside suburb of Mbezi in Dar es Salaam during a rather nondescript operation. However, suspicion about her active role in global drug dealing was heightened after it was confirmed that she also holds a Tanzanian passport, in which she goes by the name Mwanaidi Ramadhan Mfundo. She is also popularly known in the neighbourhood as Mama Leila.  

Sources said the anti-narcotics authorities were stunned by the apparent international links of the woman they had arrested in their local operation.As the investigation into the East African drug peddling network targeted by the Obama administration is intensified, there has been renewed interest in the anti-narcotics campaign in Tanzania. But some have asked what happened to the controversial list of 100 suspected drug barons that was handed to President Jakaya Kikwete over five years ago, when he came to power and declared war on the vice.

Sources said the local kingpins of the illicit drugs include apparently well-known and respected politicians, businessmen and even some clergymen. President Kikwete was only a few days ago embroiled in  an exchange with religious leaders, when he accused some of them of dealing in drugs. He had appealed to the clerics to join the government in the war against the narcotics trade.

With the impeccable intelligence gathered on the dealers, observers have been asking why it is taking so long to bring the suspects to book. Several people, who spoke to The Citizen on Sunday, demanded an explanation from the authorities, as why it was proving difficult to nail the suspects. But the head of the Anti-Narcotics Unit, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Godfrey Nzowa, was quick to assure the public that the noose was tightening around the suspects. Besides the Kenyan woman, citizens of Iran, South Africa, Liberia, Ghana, Guinea, the Comoros and Mozambique, are among those arrested in Tanzania in recent times over drug trafficking offences. “We have received many names and are closely monitoring them.

Thank God, the President has also committed himself to this fight,” Mr Nzowa said. Last Sunday, President Kikwete sparked off renewed debate on the war against drugs, when he said the situation was worsening, and accused some clergymen of being involved in the illicit business.  The President has in the past conceded that drug cartels are gaining strength and political influence in the region.

He made the remarks while opening the Counter Narcotics Roundtable for the East African countries in late 2009. Last week, observers said the President could not have made such a sensitive statement touching on the clergy without first having solid evidence against the people he accused. They said they were eagerly waiting for the suspects to be named and arraigned.

Tanzania Labour Party leader and Vunjo MP Augustine Lyatonga Mrema said: “The President receives the best intelligence the security organs can gather. For him to implicate religious leaders, there must be something in it. We now want to see the suspects taken to court.” Mr Mrema, a former Home Affairs minister, said he was aware from his experience in that portfolio that “there are billionaires in this country, who engage in the drugs business”.

He urged President Kikwete not to feel restrained from acting on the suspects because of the fear that he would be accused of violating human rights.“Let us learn from what US President Obama has done. Those involved in the business are heartless people. To counter them you need some degree of mercilessness,” he added.

“President Obama took such a tough decision not because he had sufficient intelligence. He did not fear human rights violation accusations because the activities of these people pose a danger to US interests.”Among the seven drug kingpins President Obama named last week is former Kenyan Assistant minister Harun Mwau, who once headed the country’s anti-corruption agency.

The head of the Drug Control Commission, Mr Christopher Shekiondo, citing the legal implications of naming the suspect without having sufficient evidence, said they had been tipped off about many people linked to the illegal business. “We have received the names of politicians and religious leaders. We know some of them and are following them closely. What we want to have in our hands first is sufficient evidence.  “Drug barons are very clever. The kingpins always use other people to transport and sell the drugs for them for a hefty pay,” he said.

Mr Nzowa said the dealers cleaned up their ill-gotten money by channelling it into the legal economy.

“They launder the money by constructing buildings and also running legal businesses. A lot of the money is in real estate business. We are investigating each and every individual on our list of suspects.”

Drug traffickers were also said to be taking advantage of the inadequate controls in the banking and financial systems to deposit billions of shillings into their accounts, as they are not being asked about the source of the money. According to the US State Department’s 2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, drug trafficking has become a major profit generating crime in Tanzania.

The report also says that criminals, including drug dealers, use front companies, informal money transfer systems and bureau de change to launder the funds. Real estate and the used car business are also cited as major sources of money laundering for drug dealers in Tanzania.

The executive director of the Tanzania Media Women’s Association, Ms Ananilea Nkya, said the war against narcotics would not be won by merely naming the suspects. “I’m sure the security organs know who and where the drug kingpins operate from. The trick is to dare, name and shame them before finally dragging them to court. Short of that we are losing the battle.”

Mr Nzowa and Mr Shekiondo praised President Kikwete for demonstrating the political goodwill by daring the clergy. But critics saw it as lack of courage to take the war a notch higher. A Dar es Salaam resident, Mr Onesmo Olengurumwa, said: “If the President knows those people and cannot name them, that is lack of political will. I think this is the greatest challenge we face in the war.”

Loopholes in the criminal justice system were  singled out as a hindrance in the war on drugs.  Both Mr Nzowa  and Shekiondo expressed frustration over the discretion magistrates exercise during preliminary inquiry. They accused the judicial officers of disregarding vital provisions in the Anti-Narcotic Act, saying this was a serious setback. Section 16 of the Drug and Prevention of Illicit Traffic and-Drugs Act, 1995 says that any person who produces, transports or is found in possession of drugs commits an offence and upon conviction is liable to a fine of Sh10 million or to imprisonment for life or to both.

And the court may, for reasons to be recorded in the judgment, impose a fine exceeding Sh10 million.

Mr Shekiondo said: “We have arrested and taken many to court, but upon pleading guilty, the courts set them free after paying a fine sometimes less than what is prescribed by the law. The law clearly states that upon conviction the punishment is fine and imprisonment. But who is implementing this law? The law is good but our magistrates are not exercising it accordingly.”

Mr Nzowa said: “There are several people we have arrested in possession of drugs but were fined and set free. Magistrates have too much discretion. I think the independence of the Judiciary is not reasonably used in these cases.” According to Mr Shekiondo,  suspects charged with possessing Sh10 billion worth of drugs are granted bail, violating the law. “We, in the fight against the trade, feel this discretion by magistrates is seriously hindering the campaign.”

They two top officials said that by the time they managed to file an appeal challenging an acquittal, foreign suspects would have left the country.The Dar es Salaam Chief Sheikh, Alhaj Alhad Mussa Naqshabandiy, said there was no doubt that some politicians and clergy were involved in the narcotics business. “By not arresting them, the authorities send the signal that some people are above the law,” he said.

He urged Tanzanians to support the law enforcement organs by volunteering information and taking part in community policing to help nail the culprits.