Harare is now a den for drug lords pushing dangerous substances such as cocaine and heroin with impressionable youths in poor neighbourhoods increasingly becoming addicts, a month-long investigation has revealed.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
The drugs brought into the country by top government officials, businesspeople and ordinary cross-border traders that travel as far as Tanzania are finding their way into the streets of the capital’s Avenues area, notorious for commercial sex workers and affluent suburbs.
Investigations that included interviews with drug-pushers, dealers and users of the illegal substances revealed that drug dealers operated freely in the capital’s Kopje area and the central business district (CBD), particularly Luck Street.
They also operate from night clubs frequented by foreigners in the Avenues area, a lodge reportedly owned by a top government official in the CBD and another joint that is popular for holding striptease shows.
Insiders in the underworld networks operating in Harare claimed that one of the most prominent dealers in the Kopje area was linked to a senior government official.
Other hotspots included Mufakose where both expensive and cheap drugs are found in places known in street lingo as George Norton, Morcan, Magolis and Boss Jobo.
In Budiriro, the most popular place for drug-pushers is Tawanda Matsotsi, while in Mbare there is David House where dangerous drugs are easily accessible.
Terry Guns is favoured by both addicts and drug-pushers in Glen View, while in Mabvuku they operate from a place known as KwaRasta.
“Most of these drugs come from South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. Some supplies come from a syndicate of people working in cahoots with border officials to allow drugs into Zimbabwe,” said a source who requested anonymity fearing victimisation.
The Zimbabwe Civil Organisation and Drug Network (ZCLDN), an organisation fighting to stem drug abuse in the country, said it was aware of the proliferation of narcotics in Harare.
“Most of the drugs find their way into Zimbabwe because we have porous borders,” ZCLDN’s Wilson Box.
“Zimbabwe is also an attractive market for the drugs because of the multi-currency system but there are serious challenges in that regard because this has fuelled crime, violence and diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis C, TB among others.”
Wilson added: “Even at work, a worker who is intoxicated is not very productive. This also brings the issue of money laundering in the country.
“You will find that drug lords are so liquid even during the time of a cash crisis.”
According to Box, Zimbabwe has become an attractive place for drug dealers because of the widespread use of the United States dollar, a world reserve currency.
Dangerous drugs such as crack cocaine are sold by numerous players ranging from prominent business people, middle class traders and several active and low-key runners whose names were made known to this paper.
Click Link for more http://www.thestandard.co.zw/2016/09/04/harares-dangerous-drugs-time-bomb/
Source: The Standard
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