Times Of Swaziland: NEW CRISIS: DRUG CARTELS

NEW CRISIS: DRUG CARTELS
================================================================================
By Martin Dlamini on 02/02/2018 01:18:00


THE name Pablo Escobar is familiar to many. He is the famous ‘King of Cocaine
of Columbia. Prior to his death in December 1993, he is believed to have
controlled 80 per cent of America’s cocaine trade and was the seventh-richest
person in the world, with around US$30 billion in the bank, according to a
September 2015 report by News.co.au.
He would stop at nothing to protect his drugs trade and was behind the murders
of thousands of people, offering bounties on police officers and putting hits on
journalists and presidential candidates. “Escobar ruled Colombia, and it looks
like nothing has changed,” the report said then. Well Escobar is dead, but
cocaine production lives on. In fact, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
reports that an estimated 866 tonnes of cocaine were produced at clandestine
labs across Columbia alone in 2016, which rose from the 2015 estimate of 649
tonnes.
That’s just Columbia. Coming back home, the past few weeks have brought to
light how cocaine dealing is now very much alive in our beautiful kingdom,
eSwatini. The large haul of the drug at the country’s borders give indication
to the intensity of the trade. The involvement of police also presents a
frightening picture of how deep this illicit trade has infiltrated our society.
The multimillion Emalangeni worth of cocaine quantities involved, warrant
serious scrutiny, given the threat the drug now poses to national security and
the local economy through corruption and money laundering.
We have good reason to suspect that Escobar is being idolised on our shores by
an individual or individuals who may soon turn this ‘pulpit of Africa’ into
the Columbia of Africa if no serious effort is made to step up security against
this emerging threat.
Escobar gave Columbia a tag of being the drug den of the world which is proving
hard to shrug off. Swaziland, on the other hand, is famous for being the dagga
capital of the world, which has contributed to deterring foreign investment
because of the threat drug dealing poses to fair business competition. According
to the World Drug Report of 2017, drug money can make countries poorer. It cites
studies that suggest how an injection of laundered money, including from illicit
drug activities, is associated with reductions in overall annual economic growth
rates, particularly in smaller and less developed countries.
One estimate, based on a study of 17 countries of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, says drug money has the potential to inflate
property prices, distort export figures, create unfair competition, reinforce
skewed income and wealth distributions, increase corruption and weaken the rule
of law.
“In the process, legitimate businesses, without access to illicit funds, may
be squeezed out of the market and new legitimate investments may not take
place,” states the report. The arrest of two South African police officers who
drove into the country to assist the drug barons to smuggle the cocaine out of
the country, reflects a seriously compromised national security.
For how long has this been going on? The brevity of others to stash the drug in
compartments of their cars and cross the border in broad daylight speaks to a
greater involvement of police officers at our security check points. This drug
trade is not just corrupting the police, but an entire society. As indicated by
the World Drug Report of 2017,  corruption exists all along the drug supply
chain.
“At the production level, farmers may bribe eradication teams, producers may
bribe judges and manufacturers may exploit workers in chemical companies, in
order to get hold of precursor chemicals. Further down the chain, traffickers
bribe customs officials and take advantage of weaknesses in transport firms. At
the consumer level, users can get drugs through corrupt doctors and
pharmacists,” the report states.
This is evidently playing itself out locally. The lessons to be drawn from the
Escobar era, is how drug cartels can easily take over governments, destroy the
health of a nation, increase murder rates and ruin an economy by turning
investors and tourists away. In some countries, drugs are used to fund terrorist
activities.
The question is; how deep is Swaziland immersed in the drug trade? More
importantly, how well equipped are we to curb this rising phenomenon,
particularly given our failures to stop the cultivation and trade of marijuana.
The country has more than enough crises to deal with and we most certainly
cannot afford another. With so much of our money going into funding the security
forces, surely we deserve to be the best drug-free country in Africa. If not,
then somebody should be called to explain why they deserve to keep their jobs!