EDITORIAL: Could weak legal instruments be fuelling drug trafficking?

This week, police announced four people had been arrested as law enforcers busted a smuggling ring that attempted to use Rwanda and a transit for cocaine worth hundreds of millions of francs from South America. A couple of months ago, a British woman of Ugandan descent was also arrested at the airport while in transit from Bujumbura, Burundi to Entebbe in Uganda. On her body was strapped a kilo of cocaine. Most of the narcotics that are usually intercepted by the authorities are usually the “softer” ones: cannabis (marijuana) and potent illicit brew, mostly from neighbouring countries. Rwanda has no alarming market for hard drugs. Local drug consumption usually revolves around the softer drugs. But for how long? A Rwandan passport holder does not trigger the red flag in many foreign customs offices, as, say, for West Africans or South Americans. They raise the least amount of suspicion and are therefore the ideal couriers (mules, in the drug industry lingo) for drug lords. One of the reasons that could be encouraging the proliferation of drug trade is the soft sanctions associated with drug offenses. The three to five years prison sentences or fines ranging from Rwf50, 000 to Rwf5 million is not deterrent enough; that is what could be emboldening drug traffickers. Authorities should revisit this issue before it is too late. Tomorrow, when the traffickers find it difficult to bypass Rwandan security and customs, they might cultivate a safer local market, that would be disastrous. We will graduate from the seemingly manageable “soft” league to one that even the most powerful countries have failed to cope with.

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EDITORIAL: Could weak legal instruments be fuelling drug trafficking?