Watching Tanzania: catch all

[davidbfpo]

An AFP report which is IMHO very significant if terrorism is directly funded by the such traffic in heroin and for regional LE. From the sub-title:

HMAS Melbourne discover vessel carrying heroin with a street value of £380 million off the coast of Tanzania during terrorism deterrent mission in the region

Link to story in DTelegraph:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-Tanzania.html

The Australian Navy statement includes:

These seizures have severely impacted the funding network of those terrorist organisations that rely on these shipments for income.

Less clear is what the RAN actually did with the vessel and crew:

A team from the frigate seized the drugs, took samples and destroyed the remainder.

A few photos here:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-0...s-haul/5246840

The ship is part of the currently Australian-led CTF 150, which:

The task force conducts maritime security and interdiction operations to deter terrorism and promote peace and security in the maritime regions of the Middle East and Indian Ocean.

I don't watch this region that closely, but cannot recall such a large seizure of heroin before. Where was the ship heading? Southwards towards South Africa I suspect.

Anyway an interesting event.

[davidbfpo]

A joint operation by the British and Australian navies seized the largest ever haul of heroin at sea, weighing 1,032 kilogrammes, the MoD announced last night..... were found on a dhow, or sailboat, some 30 miles off the coast of east Africa near Kenya and Tanzania....hidden in a cargo of cement. They were later destroyed...This is the sixth seizure of heroin by the Combined Maritime Forces since January

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ul-at-sea.html

[davidbfpo]

Shipments of heroin are unloaded from dhows and cargo ships off the shores of Kenya and Tanzania, and taken ashore on small speedboats. They are then broken up into still smaller packages before being “muled” to Europe from international airports in Kenya and Ethiopia. Sometimes they are consolidated and sent by lorry to South Africa for onward shipping. Some of the heroin enters the African market to feed nascent demand, particularly in Zanzibar, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, where heroin use is slowly rising. Heroin is also smuggled to consumers in South Africa and Nigeria. In Kenya and Tanzania criminal gangs with close ties to political and security elites control the trans-shipment.

Link, behind a registration wall:www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21639560-east-african-states-are-being-undermined-heroin-smuggling-smack-track?

[davidbfpo]

A rare report on Tanzania in The Guardian:http://www.theguardian.com/global-de...poster-sellers

A taster:

In 2013, Tanzania was the second biggest recipient of foreign aid in sub-Saharan Africa, receiving $3.43bn (£2.19m) from donors. Despite years of relative peace, and economic growth of more than 5% annually for the past decade, around two-thirds of its nearly 49 million people still live in poverty.

[davidbfpo]

I have merged two stand-alone threads and changed the title to 'Watching Tanzania: catch all'.