Zimbabwe’s Fast Descent Into A Nation Of Drug Addicts

charity charambaFROM townhouses, car sales to run-off-the mill flats in Harare’s red light districts, the drug craze that has hit the capital goes on while police watch amid claims some officers could also be supporting the illicit trade.
 
Some flats (names withheld) in Harare’s Avenues area, infested by ladies of the night, have been turned into havens for sniffing hard drugs like cocaine.
 
Titus, our mole, told NewsDay that most of the ladies have taken to doing drugs and using their sex nests as rendezvous for cocaine binges.
 
“Many of them are now addicts and besides the sex orgies, for which they are now being paid peanuts, they are getting paid for using their accommodation for drug parties or such other ‘get-togethers’ in which the entertainment includes cocaine,” he said.
 
NewsDay was taken to a house in the leafy suburb of Chisipite in Harare where it is alleged drugs are sold and consumed. The house, according to Titus – a recovering addict who turned pimp after his girlfriend, also from a high-end family – disappeared and had to be rescued, is owned by one Rod*.
 
Wheelchair-bound Rod has two houses in the suburb and is connected to a car-sales owner at a shopping centre in the capital.
The car-sale business is reportedly used as banter for the flourishing drug business.
 
Mobile phones come in handy and the trade comes alive especially at night but some are so hooked on it that they cannot wait.
At the corner of Baines Avenue and 7th Street, just a stone’s throw from President Robert Mugabe’s official residence and the Police General Headquarters, is a “usual pick-up point for the stuff”.
 
During our drive, in which we are shown how the drug cartel operates, we get to the corner of Josiah Chinamano Avenue and Leopold Takawira Street and, bang, a transaction is going on in another ex-Jap vehicle (a Toyota Mark 11 (registration number withheld). The car’s bonnet is opened as if it has developed a mechanical fault. The NewsDay reporter is introduced as “my driver” and Titus walks straight to the car. There is excited chatter before he is shunted into the back seat.
 
It takes less than two minutes and the transaction is done. Titus walks back to the reporter with the package in his hand. It’s that easy and this is no tomatoes business. It is one of the most dangerous drugs being sold like ordinary home stuff in the streets of Harare.
 
The details of the cars used were provided to the police and they confirmed ownership. Other cars used in the ring include the Altezza and Raum models.
 
“The Raum is most popular because it is cheap and is one of the vehicles used in the carrier business of bringing the drugs from East Africa into Harare. Most officials at our borders are more concerned about people paying duty than any other illicit stuff being smuggled into the country,” Titus claimed.
 
Our little journey ended with a round trip through Chisipite, a new house near Kamfinsa Shopping Centre in Highlands, the red-light district. By the time we were done, we had indeed been convinced that we had something on our hands.
 
There is another house in Belvedere and the middle-income suburb’s maternity clinic environs have been turned into a “drug exchange area”.
 
There are names of drug dealers that have become common currency in the market. Some are of foreign extraction while locals have been roped in as runners.
 
There is Fatso*, who sold cocaine to undercover police officers to Dorgan*, a Tanzanian, and Josef*, who is believed to either be from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Cameroon. Then there is Siziba*, brothers Clay and Peter*, Freeman* and Wallace*, the owner of the Toyota Mark 11.
 
A sports club near Avondale is also a frequent spot for drug dealers. The NewsDay investigations established that the demand for cocaine has skyrocketed in recent years. It is thought that from 2007 to date, drug cartels in the country have smuggled almost a tonne of cocaine per week to regional countries via Zimbabwe.
 
How much does a tonne of cocaine weekly cost? Lots of money, of course! During this period, each cartel can make nearly US$1 million per week. Yet, an old maxim says crime does not pay.
 
The average payment for a mule is between US$3 000 and US$5 000 for a three-day trip, which in Zimbabwe, battling an unprecedented socio-economic crisis, is a lot of money. It means drug mules can earn between US$20 000 and US$25 000 per month –a cool salary for a blue chip company chief executive, barring the dangers that go with it. For some, this can be an equivalent to three years’ salary. But not every poor person becomes a drug mule, yet the numbers are growing. It is thought that mostly women were being used by their “boyfriends” to traffic drugs. And almost 30 women were arrested in the last three years in Asian countries where the crime attracts a death sentence.
 
A Cabinet minister who refused to be named and chief police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, disclosed that drug dealing, addiction and overdose were every parent’s fear in the country.
 
Hence, NewsDay’s first instalment of the investigation into the drug dealing business in Zimbabwe attracted varied reactions from readers whose families have been negatively affected by the scourge.
 
“Thank you for the article. Drugs are a big reality in Zimbabwe and we are caught unprepared to deal with the problem or re-rehabilitate those who fall into the trap.
 
“I have a cousin from a well-to-do family but we are all clueless as to how to re-rehabilitate him. As a result he has been in and out of prison, hospitals, mental wards etc and no one seems specialised to help. It is about time we talk about drugs with the same zeal we talk about Aids and have special institutions/support groups to help those trying to break free,” one reader said.
 
Like Colombia – itself the 1990s heartbeat of the world’s most well-known drug lord, Pablo Escobar, illicit drugs have become Zimbabwe’s social war frontier.
 
The rising drug menace in Zimbabwe would remind one of Escobar who, during his peak, was not afraid of any risk.
 
In September, we visited Medellín in Colombia and from the airport to the hotel and at every public place there are police officers with sniffer dogs. We were searched countless times on a daily basis for the most part of our two week-long trip.
 
A Colombian police officer narrated to NewsDay, the invincibility of Escobar saying he started building his cocaine empire in 1975 and when he was arrested for possessing drugs, he bribed the arresting officers and the case collapsed. This marked the beginning of a policy that endured throughout his reign – a paid cop turns a blind eye.
 
Media reports show that Escobar’s approach to authorities was known as “plata o plomo” (silver or lead). It meant that those he couldn’t bribe were killed. No doubt hundreds, perhaps thousands, of police officers were murdered on Escobar’s orders simply for doing their job. Countless families destroyed to help the rich man to grow even richer.
 
GQ magazine states that at some point, Escobar spent US$2 500 a month on rubber bands which his drug cartel used to tie together stacks of cash. There was always a good use for them. His influence was insane as he was reportedly responsible for 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the US. Four in five people snorting a line were snorting an Escobar line, and single-handedly kept Wall Street trading.
 
Escobar smuggled cocaine in plane tires. A pilot could reportedly earn as much as US$500 000 depending on the amount Escobar stashed. Another trick was soaking jeans in liquid cocaine and exporting them legally to the US, then extracting the cocaine on arrival. Very smart, Pablo.
 
It is thought that when Escobar’s family were hiding at a farm in the mountains surrounding Medellín, Escobar burned $2 million to save his daughter from the cold weather.
 
Abigail*, who had initially agreed to be interviewed over the issue and was supposedly on the path to recovery, has since relapsed. She explained that many youths were becoming ensnared in drug dealing for different reasons ranging from peer pressure, drug addiction, unemployment or mere ignorance. Regrettably, once one was hooked in drug dealing, it becomes very dangerous to leave or expose the drug dealing racket.
 
This became clear as some individuals have been telephoning and threatening the NewsDay crew with unspecified action claiming the article had exposed them. One such caller claimed the information had been traced back to them from his clients as far off as UK, South Africa and the US.
 
*Not their real names. By Wisdom Mudzungairi / Richard Chidza. source-newsday

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