INTERNATIONAL BREAKING NEWS

New highway trafficking heroin in the west

25 February 2019, 22:11 BDT

Footage hanging on the wooden box was Alija Smit (not the real name). Back vegetables and fruit basket. Waiting for the buyer's way. If he does not sell vegetables and fruits of basket, he will be very inconvenient. The world does not run - he is more worried about other problems than the problem. For six years this 'crisis' has been chasing back. So if it is not good to sell, the woman will have to take the alternative path even today to get the money.

Around the corner of South Africa's Cape Town, where Algia was thinking that sitting in Winnberg, a young man stood a little away from it. Algiers also waited for this young man as well as the customer. He has no love relationship with the young man. The young man is a heroin supplier. Alizia bought heroin from the young man every day for selling vegetables and fruits. Six years ago Algia was using heroin. Every day he has to buy heroin with 30 rand (1 dollar = 14 rand) in the local currency. On the day that heroin can not sell enough vegetables or fruits to buy, she worked as a sex worker in the evening. In his language, 'heroin is the worst thing. Heroin was taken as the first drug, and I could not escape. '
The trend of heroin addiction in Africa has not been seen in recent times. In the eighteenth and nineties, the people of heroin were found in tourist spots such as the city of Zanzibar or the white supremacist Johannesburg. According to the United Nations Department of Narcotics and Crime Offices (UNODC), heroin addiction has increased rapidly in Africa compared to any other continent since 2006. This heroin-trade is causing severe destruction. It is not only public health but also in politics.

Increasing the use of heroin in Africa has affected the global supply. Several areas of Afghanistan are in the possession of the Taliban. There are 85 percent of heroin produced in the world. Poppy cultivation increased in Harone's main source in Afghanistan Opium is produced from a variety of poppies. 
According to UNODC data, in 2010, the opium production record increased 65 percent to 10 thousand tonnes.

Not just the increase of heroin production, but trafficking through Africa is a different way. Earlier, on the Balkan route, Iran, Turkey and South-Eastern Europe could reach the west and reach the heroin. That was being used as the main way of trafficking heroin in the west. But for a decade it has become difficult to trace the drug. In particular, Turkey has kept the border area under severe surveillance to prevent refugees from the war in Syria and European countries. For this reason, most heroin trafficking has now shifted to the 'Southern Route'.

This way heroin is taken from Afghanistan to Pakistan's Makran coastal area. Arabian sailboats are locally smuggled by those who are called as Dhoys, that heroin is smuggled by them. Some heroin is trafficked in a large ship with a container. Dhausa went to the south-west Indian Ocean, to Somalia, Tanzania and Mozambique. From here, heroin is trafficked in South Africa and by sea or by air in Europe and America.

The authorities have failed to prevent the trafficking. US-led joint navy patrols in the Arabian Sea since 2010 But this army mainly works against terrorists. Detecting drug smugglers is not their main job. Trafficking is sometimes caught by the idea of ​​the Taliban financing through drug trade. But there is no obligation to arrest the drug smugglers. On the other hand, the seizing rate of traffickers in Africa is very low. Police do not try to catch traffickers because of authority and political patronage.

It is said, the second highest income source is the trafficking heroin after Mozambique coal. According to some, the main source of income is the trafficking heroin. However, it is really difficult to verify this information. The influential family controlled the trafficking in Mozambique. Together with the leaders of the Mozambican Liberation Front (Falimo) leaders of the ruling party are involved. One of the involved in drug trafficking said that the transaction is between smugglers and the state.

Protected from the arrest of Felimo traffickers for political donations and personal interests. The ruling party kept the security situation lax in the port of the poor for import and export of smugglers. There are no products that are being brought here. Once the freelancer used the government clearance, one smuggler once imported hundreds of motorcycles. The petrol tank of those motorcycles was filled with heroin packets.

Although there are so many cases of trafficking, the government does not have any action to arrest traffickers. South Africa's crime-detective officials alleged that their investigation of drug trafficking was hampered by Mozambique. Insurgent groups have increased in the south due to illegal trade including trafficking heroin.

The drug business is affecting South Africa in the same way. Due to good infrastructure and poor currency, the country used as a base for trafficking heroin in other countries. The case of murder in Cape Town was also increasing in the control of drug trade. But not only trafficking, the interior of the country is becoming increasingly heroin. A group of drug dealers will be present in the field with new strategies.

Alijia Smit, who started writing about it, said the 35-year-old Tanzania, a Juan named Junkie, has been attached to Heroin. Juma said that the 'inaugural package' was given to the newcomers for special discounts. Those who buy repeatedly, they are rewarded. A pack of 30 Rand for every five cube is offered free of cost. He took 500 rand for 'booster pack'. Of this, 250 rands are from his profits. But to get 'protection' for these things, they have to pay a regular 'tax' to the drug chakra. 
But sorry for the previous normal life is Jumaar. He said, he earns the amount of money he would have repaired telephone poles in Zanzibar, semi-autonomous area of ​​Tanzania. However, the income of the wife and two children was not enough to return to Cape Town. He said with displeasure, 'This life is tough, sit down.'

Brian, a young man from Uganda, told how he had been in drug trafficking. Before attending drug trafficking, he was studying veterinary science at a university in Uganda. He agreed to smuggle drugs in the bounty of five thousand dollars. For the first time he collected drugs from Tanzania's Zanzibar. Brian said that at every step he had to meet new people, one step guy was giving way to another step. A Arab man in a hotel room named Stone Town in Zanzibar gave him one kg of narcotics. He swallowed water with a very tightly wrapped masking tape. He had to swallow 100 counts in 15 minutes. If a burst of masking tape is spread in his body in some way then death is inevitable. He was not even aware about this. In his language, the tape wrapped in a tape is not harmed.

After swallowing 100 capsules, Brian told the next step that the Arab people. Then Brian traveled 48 hours a day. To return to Tanzania from Uganda, he had to cross three borders. After one kg of heroin was brought out from his body, it was packaged again and it was taken away by other traffickers in Europe.

There is no information on the actual number of heroin users in South Africa. Almost two decades ago, more than a thousand people were treated for drug healing. But it's just a fraction of the users. According to a statistic, the number of users who take heroin through injection - 75 thousand. Many people use heroin cloth washing powder as a toxic cocktail and use it as a cigarette. Many people use sleeping tablets and stimulant methamphetamines. Many people use dangerous 'bluetoothing' methods. After taking the heroin cocktail through a drug addict, another intoxicant body, through injecting blood into its body. Because of the prevalence of HIV in the country, this method has become very risky.

Crayon Anzen, a drug addict and rehabilitation center called 'Camp Joy' in Cape Town. Those who become addicted to drug trafficking are provided medical services. Cranven Angel said, heroin has now become an elite drug. One of the drug addicts said that many people took drugs to fight the drug business and went on to make a memory of a violent fight.

According to the concerned people, as long as the road to the south of the drug trafficking continues, solving the drug problem will not be easy.

Source: Economist, The Daily Beast