East African states are being undermined by heroin smuggling

Experts are calling it the African “Smack Track”: a circuitous route to smuggle heroin from Afghanistan to Europe, passing through east Africa. Two drug busts in November, netting 712kg of the stuff, closed a record year for heroin seizures off the coast of Kenya. The haul is less a sign of improved policing and more evidence of the growing importance of the route. The largest seizure took place in April, when an Australian warship found more than a tonne of heroin hidden among sacks of cement on a dhow in international waters.

Most heroin from Afghanistan travels to Europe by two main routes: a northern one through Central Asia and a western one via Iran. The minor “southern route” through east Africa has existed since the 1980s, but last year’s seizures—totalling some 3,500kg, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)—point to a growth in traffic.

Alan Cole of UNODC says the shift was caused by “improved law enforcement in central Europe and the conflict in Syria”. Stricter border-security checks along the Balkan Route, combined with the increasing risk of getting caught up in expanding wars in the Middle East have made the overland passage less attractive.

Instead smugglers have taken to the seas. 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.

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