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Africa

Africa, North America, Smuggling, War on Drugs
Qat’s out of the bag
01.26.07 | Permalink | Comment?

It was with some dismay yet no surprise that I started to stumble across more and more news articles (Just Google and see) that yet another immigrant culture was starting to clash with good old American principals yet again. This time it wasn’t what has become the steady daily news making issue of Islamic immigrants assimilating into mainstream America, but this time it was about a cultural habit. An ancient habit common to East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Qat chewing. Not unlike the good old boys of rural America chewing tobacco (and for lots of the same reasons) this activity has all manner of social and physiologic roles it plays in it’s respective societies. While embraced by some and reviled by others its use has been anchored by more than one culture. My own theory about the recent Ethiopian invasion of Somalia is that it had more to do with the Islamists banning qat usage thereby interrupting the plants flow than it did about personal freedoms and the threat of fundamental Islam. Call me crazy, it’s ok, I can take it.
Africa
“Kenya now cocaine trafficking hub”
09.21.06 | Permalink | Comment?

The Associated Press has put out an article about how Kenya has recently been cited by officials from the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations as increasingly becoming a cocaine distribution hub, after formerly being more known as a “backwater producer of marijuana and hashish”. The U.S. State Department’s 2006 drug control strategy report was quoted as saying that “[i]nternational drug trafficking rings have made inroads in Kenya and may benefit from a climate of official corruption, which allows them to operate with near impunity”.
Africa, Smuggling, War on Drugs
Five policemen arrested in missing cocaine case in Ghana
09.17.06 | Permalink | Comment?

As mentioned here several times, the reputation of certain Ghana’s law enforcement agencies has been taking a bit of a hit internationally and locally after the scandal of an alleged 77 parcels of cocaine having gone missing from the MV Benjamin that was raided off Ghana’s coast a few months ago.

Five policemen have now been arrested in the past week, after purportedly going to the beach after news of the bust was made and returning without making any arrests, according to police sources who spoke to the Ghanaian Chronicle, with the implication that the cops were corrupt. Corruption allegations have gone far up the police ladder after a conversation between alleged drug dealers - who have been arrested - about the disappearance of the drugs having been recorded in the house of the Assistant Commissioner of Police Kofi Boakye.
Africa
Former Drug Board Chair Nkrabea Effah-Dartey won’t defend drug dealers
07.29.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Nkrabea Effah-Dartey, currently a member of parliament and a former chairman of Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board (NCB), who raised a storm of controversy recently after his decision to represent drug defendants in court as an attorney, has reversed his decision after a meeting with Attorney General Joe Ghartey.

Effah-Dartey, who lost his position as Deputy Minister of the Interior during the last ministerial shuffle and had to relinquish his chairmanship as a result - the one position goes with the other - initially justified his decision by invoking a right to earn fees for the vocation he had trained for. He will now pull out of a court case he is currently involved in, defending an alleged drug trafficker.
Africa, North America, The Media, War on Drugs
Sense and Nonsense in alleged Khat drug ring bust
07.26.06 | Permalink | 3 Comments

Federal authorities have broken up what they say is the largest Khat (or Qat) distribution ring in the United States after an 18-month investigation. A total of 44 people have been indicted, with 30 arrests having been made in a series of raids by law enforcement officers from the likes of the DEA, FBI and local police. The alleged drug ring has been accused of bringing in about 25 tons of the leafy stimulant from East Africa in recent years.

From all news accounts, that is what is generally accepted as being fact. But when it comes to possible terrorist ties and the danger the drug poses, there is an at times absurd variance between what different news organisations reported. ABC and NBC4 in particular were not very helpful.
Africa, Legislation
Will regulations and zoning restrictions cut Botswana’s drinking?
07.26.06 | Permalink | Comment?

As part of a campaign to reduce the consumption of alcohol in Botswana, President Festus Mogae wants legislation implemented that would not only restrict the hours in which alcohol can be sold, but also refuse licences to bars wanting to open near schools, churches and roads, with similar businesses already in existence being given five years to relocate.

President Mogae talked up the plan this week with residents of Molepolole, a town west of the capital Gabarone, blaming alcohol abuse for weakening the economy, increasing road accidents, contributing to high rates of murder, assaults and rape cases, reducing “capable people to nothing” and diminishing the effectiveness of anti-retroviral drugs used against the Southern African country’s large HIV/AIDS problem. Even though he recognised it might mean the end of many alcohol-related businesses and jobs, he thought the rewards outweighed the costs.
Africa
Rif Mountains Hash
07.22.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Morocco supplies up to 80% of the hash market of western Europe. A lareg portion of that crop comes from the Rif Mountains area in the nation’s north. As with any major drug producing region, politics has played a massive role in its fortunes.

According to the UN 1000 tons of hash is produced in the Rif Mountains every year. A kilo of hash will go for about $350 at the source, but by the time it get’s to Europe it is many times that amount. Of course, for a poor Moroccan farmer, the return on producing drugs is far greater than that on producing other types of cash crop.
Africa, Smuggling
Kenyan Prosecutor in David Mugo Kiragu cocaine case hits back
07.20.06 | Permalink | Comment?

I recently posted excerpts from a guest column in the Kenyan newspaper The Nation by Philip Murgor, a former director of public prosecutions, in which he chided the investigation into a large 2004 cocaine bust and the subsequent prosecution of seven suspects; it netted only one guilty charge, that against David Mugo Kiragu.

One particular target of his scorn was the police who:

rejected the appointment of a competent and specially trained prosecutor in anti-narcotics investigations and prosecutions. Skeleton investigation files finally received reflected shoddy investigations with vital evidence missing.

The man who went on to prosecute the case, J-Oriri Onyango, was understandably not amused at the implication that he was not competent and wrote a letter [free registration required] to The Nation to this effect, squarely taking aim at Murgor, who was indeed the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time:

[A]ll the State counsel in the DPP’s department, including myself, are competent to prosecute all criminal cases without bias. Indeed there is no State counsel trained to prosecute a particular criminal case, as alleged by Mr Murgor.
The murder case involving Mr Kamlesh Pattni, which was prosecuted dismally by Mr Murgor, did not require a trained prosecutor in homicide investigations and prosecution.
Africa, Europe
What medicines Intercare helps give, the UK Environment Agency wants to bury
07.13.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Intercare, a charitable organisation based in Leicester, England, which has for the past 30 years received returned prescription medicines and then distributed them to the needy in Africa, is being forced to suspend all operations because the UK government’s Environment Agency has decreed that the drugs should be classed as waste and under EU regulations be buried in landfill.

On the face of it this is nuts. Intercare receives the surplus medicines, which are in-date and sealed, from various UK GP clinics and manufacturers; it is surplus for various reasons, including damaged packaging, cancelled orders and batch over-runs. They are then inspected by retired National Health Service professionals such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists, and sent - only to order - on to 94 clinics in Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Zambia, covering 2.5 million people. All the time specifically approved by the World Health Organistion (WHO), even though, as Christopher Booker of The Daily Telegraph noted, the Agency “even talks self-importantly of the need to comply with WHO guidance”.
Africa, Smuggling
Claudio dos Santos’ “cunning hiding place”
07.10.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Claudio dos Santos, a 21-year-old student at the University of Namibia, has been charged with smuggling cocaine into the southern African country after 76 packets of human hair inside baggage he was picking up at the international airport were apparently found to contain cocaine. The hair - used as hair extensions - has now been sent off to a lab for analysis.

According to police, the alleged cocaine was probably dissolved and then soaked in the hair before being put in the suitcase. If it had got through customs it would then have been separated from its “cunning hiding place”. They say the luggage Santos was picking up was supposedly excess luggage sent to his mother from the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, where she had visited a month ago.