Africa-Press – Uganda. The Indian government has arrested nine Ugandans for allegedly trafficking narcotic drugs into the country in two months.
Each suspected drug traffickers now faces more than 20 years in Indian jails if convicted.
According to reports by the New Delhi Customs, most of the Ugandan passengers were arrested while entering Indira Gandhi International Airport on their way from Entebbe International Airport.
The latest arrest was on January 16 when a Ugandan passenger was reportedly found with a bag of 53 concealed pellets containing suspected heroin. The customs officials had to keep the suspect in the hospital for more than a week until he excreted 38 pellets he had allegedly swallowed while in Uganda before he left for Ethiopia and connected to India.
According to New Delhi Custom officials, the recovered drugs were worth Shs3.2b.
On January 19, a Ugandan female passenger was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport with heroin weighing 1,293 grams worth Shs3.65b. She had allegedly concealed the drugs in her bags.
Biggest seizure
The biggest seizure of narcotic drugs since November last year was on January 11, 2022, when a Ugandan passenger was found with 107 pellets containing suspected heroin worth Shs42b. The New Delhi Customs officials said the suspect had travelled from Entebbe International Airport and connected to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, before travelling to India.
On December 21, 2021, another Ugandan was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport with two kilogrammes of heroin that he had concealed in his luggage.
Indian authorities also arrested a female Ugandan on November 13, last year with drugs suspected to be heroin weighing 12.9kgs.
Efforts to get a comment from Uganda’s High Commissioner in India Grace Akello to establish whether she has been given details of how and where the suspects got the drugs from were futile as our telephone calls to her known contacts went unanswered.
There have been several allegations of foreign criminal gangs in Kampala City that have luring young Ugandans to act as drug couriers.
Unsuspecting young people looking for jobs in foreign countries are given luggage by the criminal gangs to deliver it to different destinations. The victims often don’t know that drugs are concealed in the luggage.
GROWING TREND
Heroin, which is produced in Asian countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, is top on the list of narcotic drugs seized from Ugandans in India.
India has tough land border regulations that have made it difficult for traffickers to bring in drugs.
The traffickers resorted to trafficking them to African countries as transit states and then sending them to Asian and European countries. Recently, the outgoing director of Criminal Investigations (Uganda), Ms Grace Akullo, said trafficking of narcotic drugs by Ugandans is affecting the country’s image in the world.
Ms Akullo said countries with high cases of passengers found with illicit drugs are subjected to extra searches at the airports.
Uganda Police Force often intercept drugs being trafficked out of the country but not those that are brought in. It is still unclear how such drugs are brought into the country.
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