Police intensifies fight on narcotics

A sniffer dog going through merchandise during drugs search by police

The Police have staged a road block along the Kigali-Musanze road as the fight against narcotic trade and drugs consumption in the country intensifies. The road block is expected to cut-off drugs distribution.

The operation will focus on public transport vehicles, business vehicles as well as private cars.

According to Superintendent Emmanuel Ngondo, the director of anti-narcotics unit said that the operations were necessary to wade-off.

“We perform these exercises randomly or when we have information from the public regarding narcotics being transported,” Ngondo said.

Police say narcotic smugglers and distributors have gotten smarter and it requires the law enforcers to quickly adapt. Using sniffer dogs is one sure way of flashing out the smartest of drug smugglers.

Supply of drugs in Kigali city is believed to come from Rubavu and Kirehe districts in Western and Eastern provinces respectively, police say.

“That is why our operations focus on the Kigali- Ngoma and Kigali-Rubavu highways,” Ngondo explained.

During the 16 day Police week activities, such operations were conducted along these routes and 22 narcotics dealers were arrested and more than 20 Kilograms of cannabis were confiscated.

“Our target is to break the supply chain that way we will be able to contain drug proliferation and discourage consumption,” said Superintendent Theos Badege, the Police spokesperson.

Police acknowledges public support to combat narcotics proliferation through timely information sharing. They have been encouraging the public to always come forward with information regarding drug dealers.

Such operations are expected to continue from time to time in a bid to discourage narcotics distribution and consumption.