WESTERN PROVINCE

RUBAVU — The Police and local authorities in Gisenyi, have arrested a total of 70 drug dealers since January this year, the area Sector coordinator Gideon Ruboneza said. Amidst reports of increased violence and crime  in the area.

Ruboneza said they have seized and burnt over 2 tonnes of drugs over the same period. Those arrested, he said, were found smuggling drugs from the neighbouring DR Congo’s town of Goma to Gisenyi.

"Drug dealing is one of the challenges facing our sector but we are doing everything possible through the help of the police to fight it. The 70 are those that have been identified and arrested but there could be many more people who have successfully brought in drugs,” explained Ruboneza.

He said some of the drugs were illegally bought by Gisenyi residents while some ended up in the neighbouring districts and Kigali.

Ruboneza, called on residents to report any one dealing in illicit drugs that he said was responsible for the increasing crimes such as robbery and gender based violence in homes.

To crack down on criminals, Ruboneza urged village leaders to always keep records of visitors in their respective areas, including the duration of their stay and the day of their departure. He urged hotel and lodges owners should do the same.

Terrifying in the report from the Rubavu district Police Commander, Superintendent Ernest Murayire, most of the arrested dealers were children under the age of 18 who are reportedly being abused by adults, as drug peddlers.

"Drug dealers without identifying their names pay and use children to pick their merchandise from their Goma counterparts. Most of the arrested children don’t know full identities and the addresses of the people who had sent them. This has made it hard to locate the original dealers,” he said.

"There are increasing crimes possibly related to the use of drugs. This year we had many violence cases including murder, rape and recently we had gruesome cases where a man murdered his own nine-year old daughter, another man killed his own friend over a woman and many other cases,” said Murayire, citing marijuana and chief Waragi as some of the illicit drugs.

Smuggling of drugs in Gisenyi has been a challenge to Rubavu authorities for long. Police in the area last year burnt 390kg of marijuana and 10 cartons of chief waragi which had been impounded from different dealers.

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