ARUSHA: Nigerian held with 4 kilos of cocaine

Arusha. Security officers at Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) have arrested a suspected drug trafficker on his way to Italy with four kilogrammes of cocaine.

A Nigerian national, John Chiguzo, 29, was nabbed on Saturday evening with a consignment which was well concealed in his travelling bag. He was headed to Rome, Italy via Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airline, according to KIA’s security chief Justine Kisusi.

“It’s true that we have successfully managed to intercept the cocaine consignment en route to Italy. The suspect, a Nigerian citizen, claimed to have started his journey from Arusha,” Mr Kisusi explained.

The incident comes hardly a week after Transport minister Harrison Mwakyembe called on security officers at the airport to be vigilant because drug traffickers had shifted their base from Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in Dar es Salaam to KIA.

In a report signed by the Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (Kadco) director of Finance and Corporate Services, Mr Bakari Murusuri, between March and September 2013, a number of suspects were arrested with narcotic drugs - notably cocaine and marijuana. Last month a suspect was arrested with 542.5 carats of smuggled tanzanite worth $123,362.

Mr Murusuri added that the airport has formed a task force comprising the police and officers from the Intelligence and Immigration departments as well as Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to work on security matters.

Also incorporated are officials from the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA), Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA), Kadco, airlines using the airport as well as other stakeholders.

“It is too obvious that one of our priority areas is the problem of drugs. We have involved the airlines in studying the trend, especially the major routes used by the traffickers,” he said in a brief to the minister.

KIA, which is the country’s second major airport and major gateway to tourist attractions in the northern regions, will soon install more CCTVs and binoculars and will soon purchase portable explosive tracing detectors.

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