Tanzania's Drug Control and Enforcement Authority (DCEA) says it has arrested a Tanzanian businessman living in Mombasa. It describes him as a key figure in an international drug network. According to Daily News Tanzania, Salehe Baseleman, alias Mbwiga, is suspected of sourcing drugs directly from Afghanistan. He allegedly shipped them by sea to the Mombasa coast and then distributed them to other countries, including Tanzania.
Mbwiga is one of seven suspects arrested in a special operation in Tanzania and Kenya. DCEA Commissioner General Aretas Lyimo announced the arrests in Dar es Salaam on Monday. He said the network operated in Afghanistan, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Dubai. Lyimo also linked Mbwiga to 3.5 tonnes of narcotics that DCEA seized in Kigamboni, Dar es Salaam, and Iringa Region in December 2023.
The case began in Tanzania. Officers found 299 packages of narcotics hidden in two Ford Ranger vehicles: 24 packages of heroin and 275 of methamphetamine. Both vehicles were impounded. Four men were arrested. They are Ugandan driver Juma Kisomeko, 36, and three Dar es Salaam residents: businessman Issa Nassoro, 34, and drivers Ibrahim Chembela, 30, and Mohamed Shemtuu, 45.
Lyimo said the four told investigators they had collected the drugs in Mombasa. They then drove them into Tanzania through the Horohoro border in Tanga Region. DCEA contacted Kenyan authorities to trace the source, the storage site and other members of the network.
On November 7, DCEA and Kenya's National Anti-Narcotics Bureau (NANB) seized 454 packages of methamphetamine in the Kwale area, according to Lyimo. Three more suspects were arrested there. Besides Mbwiga, they are Seif Hamadi, alias Babu Seif, a Tanzanian fisherman living in Kinondo, and Zuraicah Hussein, a Ugandan businesswoman living in Shirazi.
Lyimo said legal procedures between Tanzania and Kenya are under way to bring all the suspects before the courts. He said the operation showed the importance of national, regional and international cooperation against drug trafficking. He also urged the public to keep reporting signs of drug trafficking and abuse. The suspects have not commented publicly.