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Africa

Africa, War on Drugs
Drugs are Not Child’s Play
07.09.06 | Permalink | Comment?

“Drugs are Not Child’s Play” is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) theme for 2006.

According to R. Sundaralingam, of Indian’s national newsaper, The Hindu, the adoption of such a theme is long overdue. According to the author, “It makes the world community, their governments, non-governmental organisations and civil society aware of the damaging and destructive potential of the illicit drug menace.”

I wonder.
Africa, Europe, The Media
Drugs Over the Net
07.09.06 | Permalink | Comment?

According to a report in the London Times, there is growing concern that doctors are handing out drugs accross the internet without sufficient due dilligence.

This has lead to obvious concerns that people could take advantage of doctors who are willing to prescribe certain medications as a way to feed drug habits or the trade in illegal prescription drugs.

Some of the conditions for which doctors are prescribing medication include impotence, weight loss and baldness.

Paul Cundy, spokesman for the British Medical Association, said,
“Doctors are operating blind. It’s not possible to have an online
‘consultation’, because you can’t see, speak to or enter into a proper
dialogue with a patient. It is very dangerous.”
Africa, The Media
14 Found Living in Drug House
07.07.06 | Permalink | Comment?

14 Men were found by police living in a house which they raided for drugs.

According to police, a huge amount of drugs were confiscated and charges laid against the lessee of the property for drug dealing.

The drugs seized included CaT, LSD, Tik, Ecstacy and dagga according to a police spokesperson.

The men living in the house were all aged between 20 and 25 except for the 28 year old lessee. All now face the prospect of drug charges.

The interesting thing about this story is the spin of the story. 14 people living in a house would usually be indicative of poverty. The discovery of drugs however, suddenly moves the story into the realm of a situation that was caused by the drugs. Even if that wasn’t the situation, the media is still content to give that impression for the sake of a good story.
Africa, Smuggling
Another 2300 kilograms of cocaine missing from Ghana drug bust?
07.05.06 | Permalink | Comment?

In a dramatic twist in the investigation of five kilograms of cocaine that went missing from the 30 kilogram parcel of cocaine seized by the Narcotics Control Board off the coast of Ghana late April, an intelligence report has now revealed that the MV Benjamin was originally suspected of having 77 more such parcels of cocaine on board. As a result authorities have just set up a five-member investigating committee headed up by a Supreme Court Judge.

The committee will have one month to find out where this alleged extra cocaine went to and how soon this occurred before the drug bust. (They will also look into another case, this involving bribery and corruption by police officers after a bust in November last year of some Venezuelan cocaine smugglers.)
Africa, People
Poor mother, rich son
07.03.06 | Permalink | Comment?

The Kenyan newspaper The Standard has just run a couple of in-depth articles on David Mugo Kiragu, the drug dealer who was sentenced last week to 30 years in prison and a $270,000 fine after Kenyan police caught him trying to smuggle 1.1 metric tons of cocaine to Europe.

In “Mother of Kenya’s top drug lords speaks out“, Amos Kareithi journeys to Kiragu’s childhood home to speak to his mother who expresses surprise that her son was a successful and rich drug dealer, claiming she saw none of his wealth. She cites the dilapidated property Kareithi has just described, in at times excruciating detail, as evidence, as well as the debts she has had to pay off.
Africa, Smuggling, War on Drugs
Dealers Beginning to Target African Markets?
06.29.06 | Permalink | Comment?

The Internal Security Minister of Kanya, John Michuki, today expressed concern that hard drugs were becoming more easily available to the youth of Kenya.

According to Michuki, the involevment of Kenya has gone from being almost exclusively a crossroad for drug traffickers to being the actual target destination for many of the drugs. This trend had lead to Kenya’s increase in drug-related crime according to the minister.
Africa, Smuggling
Only one out of seven defendants in Kenyan drug trial found guilty
06.29.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Only one person out of the seven indicted last year in Kenya on charges of trafficking 1.1 metric tons of cocaine has been found guilty. Nairobi Chief Magistrate, Aggrey Mucheluloe, ruled Wednesday that only Kenyan businessman David Mugo Kiragu was guilty. Kiragu, who will appeal, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and also given a $270,000 fine.

The cocaine, which was found by police in the capital, Nairobi, and a coastal town, Malindi, at the end of 2004, was on its way to Europe where the chief suspect in the case, Kiragu’s old brother, George, is serving a jail term on a drug charge; Kenyan authorities still wish to extradite him.
Africa
Angola Turning Towards Prohibitionist Strategy on Drugs
06.23.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Drugs are becoming a major problem among the youth of Angola according to the government there who is taking a harder line.

This week, the deputy miniter of Justice, Guilhermina Prata was forced to defend the government’s strategy against the growing drug problem. “Drugs are crippling our societies through the foment of crime, dissemination of diseases like HIV/AIDS and self-destruction of the youths,” she stated.

Another Angolan MP said that part of the solution lay in restricting the access of minors to night clubs and other areas where alcohol and drugs were easily procured.
Africa, War on Drugs
Two leaders of an Egyptian drug gang hanged
06.18.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Two brothers, and leaders, of an Egyptian drug gang were hanged Sunday for kidnapping, murder, drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons.

Back in early 2004, Izzat and Hamdi Hanafi, along with about 80 other members of their gang, kidnapped over 100 inhabitants of Nakilah, a village over 300 kilometres south of Cairo. They had tried to take over some of its land and took hostages when confronted by 6,000 police. A standoff lasting seven days ensued with one person killed and several wounded, before the hostages were freed. Izzat was already on the hook for some other charges, including murder, and had already been sentenced to over 100 years in prison. Police found 50 kilograms of opium and half a tonne of marijuana at their headquarters.
Africa, Europe, People
Son of Minister for Ethics jailed for drug dealing and stealing
06.14.06 | Permalink | Comment?

In a bitter piece of irony, Daniel Buturo, the 19-year-old son of the newly appointed Ugandan State Minister for Ethics and Integrity, Dr Nsaba Buturo, has just been sentenced to four years in an English prison for drug dealing. The Birmingham College student, who had also received six months for stealing a car from a Luton hotel, had been caught selling heroin. Police stopped him on the M6 in the stolen car. As he had lived in England ever since the age of one the Judge recommended that he should not be deported. His father had moved to England in the 1980s for political reasons and went on to gain a doctorate from Birmingham University before returning to the East African state to re-enter politics.

As Information Minister last year he made news regarding the trial of Kizza Besigye, by threatening to close all stations that discussed on talk shows or aired debates about the case. Besigye was president of the opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change, which contested Presidential elections against the longstanding Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in 2001 and 2006. He lost both polls and levelled charges of electoral irregularities against the winner. Supporters say that his subsequent arrests on charges of treason and rape were politically motivated.