MWAKYEMBE: I WILL NAME ALL DRUG LORDS TODAY

 

Transport minister Harrison Mwakyembe addresses the media in Dar es Salaam yesterday. 

Dar es Salaam. Today is certain to be a most dreadful day for illicit drug merchants using Tanzania as a base and conduit for their illegal trade.

That is, if minister of Transport Harrison Mwakyembe, keeps his word and names drug kingpins who have been using the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) as the exit and entry point for their illicit merchandise.

The fiery minister, who earlier this week announced he was not afraid to die in the course of fulfilling his responsibilities, is set to make good a pledge he made last week that he would make public the identities of drug traffickers who are tarnishing the good image of the airport and the country in general.

“You keep saying that you know the barons behind the smuggling of drugs through the JNIA. But why don’t you name them? Don’t you have the guts? Give me the names and I promise I will name and shame them in public,” Dr Mwakyembe had told the National Committee on Aviation Security that had finished its term of office last week.

He had also reprimanded the outgoing committee whose members are drawn from various government agencies, institutions and ministries including the Police Force, Tanzania People’s Defence Forces and Tanzania Airport Authority, for failing to stop drug trafficking through the JNIA and other airports in the country.

And yesterday, he told reporters that he would name the traffickers who have already been arrested and those who are still at large but under the Police Force radar, who have been using the airport as a conduit of their dirty trade.

At dawn on Wednesday Dr Mwakyembe made a surprise visit at the JNIA to check out the mechanisms that are in place for inspecting passengers and their luggage.

He said he found significant weaknesses which must be addressed if there is to be improved efficiency in checking travellers and what they carry.

Dr Mwakyembe’s dramatic reaction on drug trafficking through JNIA comes in the wake of an increase in numbers of traffickers that get caught outside the country and who, it emerges, sneak through Tanzania’s most important airport with the illicit merchandise.

On the same day Dr Mwakyembe visited the airport, a drug trafficker destined for Italy was caught carrying 186 pellets of heroin and 84 pellets of marijuana.

Dr Mwakyembe exposed the suspect and showed his photo to journalists at a news conference yesterday, promising he would make public the names of drug kingpins today.

Two Tanzania Airport Authority officials who caught the traffickers were immediately promoted, Dr Mwakyembe revealed.

“I warn all drug dealers that our airports are now under tight security and anybody who will attempt to use them to smuggle drugs won’t manage; he will be arrested and exposed to the public,” he said.

He added that his ministry was presently in a campaign to screen all goods that arrive and leave through Tanzania’s major airports and ports in a bid to regain the image of the country that has been badly tarnished by drug traffickers.

“This is a campaign to regain our the country’s image and reassure the world that our ports and airports are safe… our main problem with this fight is not lack of resources; we have a problem with those assigned the task to administer security,’’ said the minister.
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN