Drug trafficking increasing

Drug trafficking in Southern Africa is on the rise and South Africa is increasingly being used as a base for the illicit trade. The country's geography and infrastructure make it the perfect springboard for trafficking throughout the region. In an attempt to stem the flow of narcotics, authorities have now focused more attention and resources on tightening security at South African entry points such as harbours, airports and land boarders. The UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) told IRIN that since 1998 it has supported the creation of specialised port anti-drug teams in East and Southern Africa. This investment was now paying dividends, said drugs programme manager Gary Lewis. "Almost all of the teams we have helped to establish in Mombassa, Djibouti, Dar-es-Salaam, Maputo and Durban have made significant drug seizures. Our biggest success to date has come in South Africa, where in October of 2000 the unit seized hashish worth over US $150 million," said Lewis. It was South Africa's biggest ever drugs haul. In January 2001, the same team was involved in a bust netting one million mandrax tablets, valued at US $5,7 million. The project that began in Durban harbour, the busiest port in the region, has proved so successful it is being expanded to other South African ports - Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. The ODCCP said recent major busts showed that increased security at entry points was impacting on the flow of narcotics. Lewis said South Africa's transition to democracy had provided opportunities for drug traffickers and organised criminal groups to exploit. The country's borders opened up and in came members of what UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called "uncivil society". Said Lewis: "The current alarming trend in heroin abuse inside South Africa, which we've seen increase measurably within the past three years - but especially within the past 12 months - reflects ... a targeted penetration of this new openness by organised criminal groups." Recent significant cocaine seizures marked progress in the fight against traffickers. Last month police seized about 350kg of the drug, worth an estimated R105 million (about US $1 million), from a container on a vessel headed for Loma, Togo, at Cape Town harbour. Said Lewis: "Although there was a small element of luck involved in the earlier seizures, the most recent bust was the result of excellent intelligence collaboration between local and foreign law enforcement counterparts. It was clearly a setback for the opposition." The UN has focused resources on supporting the work of local law enforcement agencies throughout the region. "Often our collaboration takes the form of capacity-building assistance. In Southern Africa we have devoted considerable attention over the past three years to police training and border control which targets not only drug smuggling, but other criminal activities such as the smuggling of human beings, stolen cars, illegal firearms and related corruption," Lewis said. Special training, communications and detection equipment had also been given to strengthen the drug control capacities of Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa in their joint border areas. "Our focus in this area is driven by the knowledge that one significant route for the importation of narcotics into South Africa is via Mozambique and Swaziland," Lewis said. The ODCCP is working with the South African Police Service and the British government to improve the ability of law enforcement to detect and seize drug shipments in container cargos at Johannesburg International Airport. The airport accounts for 80 percent of heroin and 70 percent of cocaine seizures in South Africa. "This very week we commenced 'on-ship' [practical] training for a joint police/customs port drug unit ... in Port Elizabeth. It's almost identical to the Durban team in size and composition. We will repeat the process in Cape Town and [at] Johannesburg's dry port," said Lewis.