The best marijuana comes from Goma and the best kanyanga, an illicit spirit, from Uganda. These are highly corroborated beliefs among local suppliers and consumers of the illicit drugs.

Despite the police conducting crackdowns on the drugs by arresting the sellers, they steadily continue to find their way on the Rwandan market. Not even heavy fines and lengthy prison terms can deter the dealers.

A survey done by Rwanda Today revealed that most of the banned substances are imported from neighbouring countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania in well-orchestrated cartels that are determined to beat the long arm of the law.

Respondents in and outside Rwanda contend that the trade in illicit substances is hard to root out because it is not only lucrative but is abetted by local leaders and security operatives, who share the proceeds with the dealers.

Kakuru Bamparana, a 38-year-old renowned kanyanga dealer on the Ugandan side of the border with Rwanda in the districts of Ntungamo and Kabale, said they are “covered” by security agents on the Rwandan side, a claim Rwanda National Police dismissed as “ridiculous.”

“We have our way of doing business with our fellow Rwandan business friends,” said Mr Bamparana, who has been arrested at least four times while ferrying illegal goods across the Rwandan border. “They have friends in the security agencies.”

Despite serving a six-month sentence in Rwanda, the “village tycoon” continues to carry out his trade, which he says earns him between Rwf1 million and Rwf2 million, which by Ugandan standards is “too much money.”

While he fell short of naming the police or intelligence organs backing the trade, Mr Bamparana said that on the Ugandan side the traffickers face “no problem” since most of the goods considered illegal in Rwanda are not banned in Uganda.

Porous borders

“We usually encounter many challenges while taking goods to Rwanda due to tight security but we work with people across the border who help us to beat border patrols,” another Ugandan trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Rwanda Today.

The trader said that they usually carry truckloads of legal goods — such as onions or matooke (bananas) — across the border but in between stash illicit cargo, which they sneak into the most prone districts of Gasibo, Nyagatare and Gicumbi.

Once the cargo makes it across the border, the traffickers are paid handsomely by their Rwandan counterparts.

Various traders in banned substances that Rwanda Today talked to in Uganda and Rwanda admitted to taking advantage of the long porous Rwanda-Uganda border.

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They said they use the loophole to avoid official entry points such as Kagitumba, Kizinga, Buziba-Kamwezi and Gatuna.

Makeshift bridges are built across the small rivers separating the two countries, on which motorcycles or bicycles ferrying the contraband into Rwanda use, mainly early in the morning or late in the evenings when the security is a bit lax.

The same was confirmed by dealers on the Kabale border, where most illicit brews and spirits manufactured in Uganda’s bustling alcohol industry and marijuana sneak through, ending up on the Rwandan market.

What is even more baffling is how the alcohol, mostly sealed in banned plastic bags, finds its way beyond the border districts to the capital Kigali and other central towns such as Muhanga and Rwamagana.

Speaking at a public event to destroy illicit drugs worth millions of francs in Gatsibo District, Eastern Province, last week, Chief Supt Eric Mutsinzi said six people were arrested in connection with the destroyed cache. The Eastern Region Police Commander said that the suspects were trying to sneak their cargo into the country.

“We have devised new measures to prevent this vice, including arresting those involved by mounting border patrols,” said Chief Supt Mutsinzi. “We have been able to identify points through which they try to sneak in the illicit substances.

Covert operations

“Through covert operations, we are able to bust them.”

The provincial police chief however revealed that the trade in narcotics had reduced tremendously despite the smugglers getting smarter by the day.

During the exercise, illicit drugs including 40 cartons of “chief waragi” and 180 litres of kanyanga, which is considered a hazardous substance, were destroyed.

Also razed in a public exercise presided over by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government Vincent Munyeshyaka were eight kilogrammes and 115 pellets of cannabis sativa (bhang).

Six suspected drug traffickers were arrested in connection with the illegal drugs, which were seized in the district. Some of the offenders have been convicted and are serving varied prison sentences, police said.

In another case, police in Nyarugenge District this week arrested a woman after she was found in possession of 40kg of bhang. The narcotics were found concealed in three bundles of clothes in her house in Kimisagara Sector. She was disguised as a second-hand clothes seller.

According to reliable sources, the best cannabis is imported from Burundi and Goma, DRC, where it is purposely grown and exported to neighbouring countries.

Rwanda Today also found out that the major illicit drug traffickers are women and children, who pass off as “innocent travellers.”

A security operative at the Rwanda-Uganda border point of Gatuna who spoke on condition of anonymity said most of the suspects arrested by police were women or children, who are accomplices of traffickers.

Innocent women, children

“Because women and children are perceived to be innocent, they carry the drugs in their clothes or luggage and easily cross without any detection,” the security officer said.

Security organs got to know of the trick after arresting women and children who tried to sneak in commercial goods without paying tax but, upon a check-up, they were found with drugs stashed in their inner clothing, the officer added.

Supt Modeste Mbabazi, the Police Spokesperson for the Central Region, said once the drugs land in the city they could easily go on the market without detection, as was the case of the Nyarugenge woman, who is suspected of having been engaged in the trade over a long time.

Community policing

“We rely on the public to tip us off when they identify such people who trade in illegal or banned substances,” said Supt Mbabazi.

He added: “Fighting drug abuse remains one of the priorities of the police and this is a joint campaign with the general public through community policing, which actually has played a vital role in fighting crime.”

Article 594 of the Rwandan Penal Code stipulates that any person who unlawfully makes, transforms, imports or sells narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances within the country shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of three to five years and a fine of Rwf500,000 to Rwf5 million.