The Drug Enforcement Commission in 2018 recorded a 9 percent reduction in arrests countrywide for drug related offences.
The Commission in 2018 recorded 5, 241 arrests countrywide for various drug related offences as compared to 5, 757 in 2017, representing a reduction of nine percent.
DEC Public Relations Officer Theresa Katongo says of the total number of people arrested, 375 were female and 4, 866 were male including 295 juveniles aged between 11 and 17 years.
Further, Ms. Katongo said a total of 1, 888 convictions were recorded against 77 acquittals with a further 2, 804 cases still pending in the courts of law at various stages.
She said overall, the Commission seized a total of 128.82 tons of cannabis plants and 22.30 tons of cannabis herb with the highest quantity recorded in Muchinga province followed by Southern and Eastern Provinces respectively.
Ms. Katongo said among other drugs seized by the Commission are Miraa (177.749 kg), Ephedrine (57.106 kg), Cocaine (2.315 kg) and Heroin (4.121 kg).
Under the Anti-money laundering Investigations Unit, Ms Katongo said the Commission arrested 77 people for various predicate and money laundering offences from 51 cases involving K37, 471, 220.18 and USD1, 171, 064.36.
She said the Commission further seized various assets suspected to be proceeds of crime amounting to a total of K71 million while cash seized amounted to K13, 043, 732.02 and USD 59, 901.56.
Ms. Katongo said a total of 25 persons were convicted for various predicate and money laundering offences from 42 cases whilst five were acquitted by the courts of law.
She said the trends observed in the year under review indicate an increase in cases of fraud and embezzlement of public funds involving officers in the public sector mainly arising from abuse of authority of office.
Ms. Katongo said other notable typologies included cybercrime cases involving ATM/Credit card cloning while the most prevalent type of money laundering used by suspects was conversion of proceeds of crime into livestock, real estate and motor vehicles.
Meanwhile, Ms. Katongo said the Commission through the National Education Campaign Division conducted a total of 2, 310 awareness activities from which a total of 486, 106 people were sensitised through institutions of learning, community and workplace programmes as part of the drug demand reduction strategy.
Ms. Katongo said the Commission attended to 757 clients under the counselling and rehabilitation programme as compared to 704 in 2017, representing a 7.5 percentage increase.
She said the clients attended to in the counselling and rehabilitation programme were aged between 9 and 50 years while the primary drugs or substances of abuse were cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, codeine, cocaine, heroin and diazepam.
Ms. Katongo said the Commission continues to fulfil its mandate of prevention and control of illegal cultivation, production, trafficking, abuse of narcotic and psychotropic drugs as well as prohibition and prevention of money laundering activities.
She said in this regard, the Commission has since launched a Strategic Plan for the period 2018-2021 under the theme ‘a smart and value-centred Drug Enforcement Commission’ with a view to improve on the Institution’s operations and procedures.
Ms. Katongo said the Commission has further developed a service charter as a way of encouraging service excellence while providing a platform for members of the public to hold the Institution accountable for its performance.
She has thanked various stakeholders that contributed to their operations in 2018 such as defence and security wings, government departments, health institutions, the press and other non-governmental stakeholders alike.
She expressed hope that members of the public will continue to support the fight against drugs, substances and alcohol abuse to realise the dream of a prosperous Zambia in which no one is left behind as envisioned in the Seventh National Development Plan among other national developmental programmes.
No mention of the (Chi’s), Chitotela and Chimense?. Story Irrelevant.
The world is watching. Until you mention Chitotela, Zambians won’t take you seriously. We have seen Chitotela trying to cleanse his theft through lots of announcements about bridges and roads, in a bid to sway our attention.
With Marijuana being legalised what do you expect? Your foucus was on mbaje. Now that mbaje is legalised we expect retrenchments at DEC.
We will retire you in national interest because the rate at which drug related cases are dropping is quite alarming. Yours is a job that entails that drug related offenses should rise. We will not accept withdrawing from government coffers when there are no cases to prosecute. You need to up your game and arrest even children in the street who are on gencem. Next time don’t make such reports. You will be retired in national interest.
Is it the crime that has reduced or your department has become less efficient? We can explain why road traffic accidents have reduced, not drug related activities.
Drop in arrests doesn’t equate to drop in crime…maybe they have just become more sophisticated and you are stuck in analogue whilst they are 4G.
@Jay Jay. You’re right. Drop in arrests could mean DEC officers are getting bribes. A drop in crime is what makes areal difference. As the saying goes, “no crime is too small to pay a bribe for”.
Stealing books.There is no excuse for it.And should be treated like any other serious crime.The book could be a book of lottery tickets.It could be a book paying workers.It could be a book of ballots.It could be a book on horse racing worth millions of dollars.That you could set a fire with a book .Is a lame excuse.You could equally set a fire with a check book.Or even the national currency.Or a piece of card.Saying that every book you come across is yours.Is not only covetting.But crime also.Research has got to on middle class crime and the statistics published.Peter Carlos Hinds.
Intellectuals are just like horses.The same way that class rooms are adjacent to one another.Horse stables are next to one another.Peter Carlos Hinds.
Why a lot of councillors can not get their charge off of drugs is because they believe that some drugs are good for you.The antidrug message is that all drugs are bad for you.Peterv Carlos Hinds.
Errata.Peterv should be”Peter”.Peter Carlos Hinds.
Illegal drugs are not only a legal problem.But there are serious medical problems associated with drug addiction.A bad batch of cocaine could cause heart attacks.Drugs that do not kill.Can cause a person to go to the top of a high building and jump off.This is not fiction.With the kenedys losing a son in that way.An overdose of many popular drugs is also fatal.To say it truthfully.drugs can kill.Drug abuse is crimanalized.But other crimes are associated with drug use.People have been known to to be shot because of drugs some of them being killed.Those that have not been killed have been seriously injured.I could go on and on about the negative attributes of drug use but i will stop here.Peter Carlos Hinds.