East African drug trade refers to the sale and trafficking of illegal drugs that take place in East African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, and Ethiopia. The most prevalent types of drugs traded in East Africa are heroin, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and khat, all of which are strictly prohibited in East African countries.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that the number of reported seizures of illegal drugs between 1995 and 2006 is inadequate to conclude that the patterns of trafficking and possible drug abuse are alarming. Nevertheless, the low number of officially reported seizures is not a sign of minimal activity. Instead, it is an indication of the lack of border control, insufficient understanding of the drug trade, and a weak criminal justice system. Though research on the effects of drug trade in East Africa remains lower than that of other regions, trafficking of drugs have often been correlated with corruption, terrorism, HIVs and youth.
In fact, drug trafficking in East Africa has been sharply increasing in the past few decades. As the region experiences limited supply for its rising demand of drugs, East African countries have been involved in international drug trafficking as well. Due to popular trafficking routes to Europe and the United States like the Balkan Route experiencing increased surveillance, drugs from Asia have been traveling through East African countries into Africa or ultimately to Europe and the United States. The Journal of International Affairs stated in 2012 that the UNODC reported a four-fold increase in cocaine seizures in East Africa between 2005 and 2010. Similarly, the number of seizures of heroin at major ports in East Africa increased nearly ten times between 2009 and 2013. Such data shows that East African trade is constantly growing, and that countries have been increasingly responding to illicit drug trafficking.
Background and History Due to its history and geography, East Africa is an ideal port of entry for the transportation of drugs from Asia. Historical trade routes through the Indian Ocean to Asia and through sub-Saharan Africa have facilitated the flow of legal goods for many years. In the 1970s, however, due to negative effects of the African debt crisis and its associated structural adjustment programs, legitimate routes of commerce have increasingly become conduits of illicit substances with loosened interference from authorities.
The sociopolitical environment of many countries in East Africa has further encouraged illegal drug trafficking. Weak law enforcement operations and relative new exposure to illegal drug trade throughout the region have unequipped governments to prevent smuggling. Moreover, corruption has encouraged lucrative illegal operations, as elections in countries such as Kenya have been funded by profits from illicit drug trade to gain greater political power. Additionally, bribery to ignore criminal activities has become a more prominent concern in the region in the past decades.
Illegal drug trafficking in East Africa can be traced back to the mid-1980s, when drug traffickers started using East African countries as their transit sites. The drug trade in East Africa was originally organized and managed by Nigerian crime organizations. In more recent years, criminal organizations from Kenya and Tanzania have also begun to play major roles.
Initially, the illegal drug trade through East Africa overwhelmingly traded just two drugs: marijuana and brown sugar heroin. The latter was a type of heroin that was heated into vapor and inhaled, or combined with marijuana into a joint to be smoked. Since brown sugar heroin was administered without a needle, its status as a public health risk was downplayed. Drugs in the early East African drug trade were already being smuggled into Western countries and were present in tourist hubs throughout East Africa.
In the late 1990s, brown sugar heroin was replaced in the global drug trade by a new type of heroin. White crest heroin, also known as white powdered heroin, was significantly more potent than other forms of heroin and injectable. Unlike brown sugar heroin, it did not require a complex heating process and was therefore easy to use. Starting in the early 2000s, white crest heroin became very common in East Africa itself for both domestic use and international trafficking, especially in Kenya and Tanzania.
The domestic use and smuggling of marijuana and white crest heroin continued into the 2000s. Methamphetamines also became a common illicit drug soon; the first seizure of them was in 2008. There is a lack of data and scholarly research that covers methamphetamines in East Africa, although a growing number of seizures since the first have been recorded. Cocaine is another drug that has become prevalent in the East African drug trade more recently.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODA), there are four main causes that have been contributing to the rise in illicit drug trade in East Africa. For one, the increasing demand in the broader African continent has created and expanded a market for drugs. Second, with more frequent international flights in and out of Africa, the transportation of goods have also helped the shipment of drugs. Third, East Africa lacks sufficient trafficking control measures, which have allowed actors of drug trade to travel in and out of the region with greater ease. Finally, the UNODC points corruption in customs and law enforcement as a factor for growing drug trade trends.
Supply and Demand
Supply Most African countries lack adequate infrastructure—the facilities and knowledge—to commercially domestically produce drugs to match international and domestic demands. Cannabis is one of the only drugs that has consistently been domestically produced. But, even cannabis production in East Africa has been inadequate to satisfy demands from Europe, the United States, and East African countries due to legal prohibition on production and consequent lack of a mass production system. Such a shortage in domestic supply of illicit drugs have made East African countries more reliant on international supplies.
The majority of the supply of illicit drugs traded in East Africa comes from Asia. East Africa's two main drug suppliers, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia, are also the two largest suppliers of illicit drugs in the world. In 2020, Afghan opium production accounted for approximately 85% of global production of opium as well as for 80% of opium consumers globally, part of which has been trafficked into East Africa.
Demand The demand that fuels the East African drug trade comes from both international and domestic sources. Historically, demand came predominantly from Western countries, but in recent years East African countries have established themselves as consumers of illicit drugs. For instance, Tanzania—especially in the islands of Zanzibar—has seen a dramatic increase in domestic drug use. A staggering 7% of the Zanzibari population is considered to be addicted to illicit drugs. The increasing levels of drug use and addiction in East African countries show that domestic demand has also been constantly growing.
The origin of Western demand comes from centers of tourism that were developed before the 1980s. Coastal resorts in East Africa saw an influx of European, South African, and American tourists, who sparked demand for marijuana and heroin in the region. Beginning in the 1980s, the war on drugs in the United States greatly strengthened East Africa as a piece of the international drug trade because competing drug smuggling operations in Central and South America were closed or significantly impeded.
Routes of Entry
Air The Kenyan city Nairobi and the Ethiopian city Addis Ababa have become key points of entry for illegal drugs on the continent that are smuggled through air transport. The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi received a Category One status from the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority in 2017, allowing travelers from the U.S. to fly directly into Nairobi instead of having to transfer in Amsterdam or Heathrow. This change in status has made Kenya a major transfer point, especially for flights from neighboring East African countries like Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. As a result, the high volume of commercial flights flying in and out of Nairobi has made Nairobi a key point in air routes. Similarly, the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa experiences more than 22 million passengers annually, being one of the most busy airports on the continent. Between 2019 and 2020, the Ethiopian police has arrested nearly 100 drug traffickers at Bole International Airport. In addition, the Federal Police Commission, drug seizures in the past three years amount to 402 kilograms of Latin American cocaine and 1377 kilograms of cannabis. Drug trafficking through the Bole International Airport is particularly high because the Counter Narcotics Operations Unit has significant infrastructural problems. The unit does not have trained officers, on-site scanning technology, sniffer dogs, on-site testing facilities, or an intelligence system that targets specific flights.
Sea The most prominent route that has been responsible for the trafficking of illicit drugs from Afghanistan is the sea route. Discreetly packaged drugs, including opium, heroin, and methamphetamine from Afghanistan travels to ports on the Makran Coast, which lies along the southern borders of Iran and Pakistan. At the ports on the Makran Coast, the drugs are distributed into fishing vessels in small packages ranging from 3 kilograms to 6 kilograms. From there, the fishing vessels travel through the Indian Ocean, and arrive at popular tourist venues in East Africa such as Zanzibar in Tanzania, or Pemba and the Quirimbas islands in Mozambique. In the latter, low severity of tidal waves and extensive sand dunes in the area allow a conducive environment for smugglers to avoid searches. Larger quantities of heroin are also trafficked using the same routes, but are concealed in containers carrying motor vehicle parts, appliances, and agricultural products from Pakistan. Cocaine is also traffiqued from Brazil inside goods containers.
These drugs then make their way to the mainland, and are smuggled overland to other African countries such as South Africa. Drugs are also smuggled by sea from Dar es Salaam to the Comoros.
Types of Drugs Among the variety of drugs that are trafficked in and out of East Africa, the most popular exports include heroin, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and now khat.
Heroin Since 2006, heroin usage in Africa has increased faster than on any other continent. As of today, Africa currently experiences its highest increase in drug use, further increasing its demand for heroin. In terms of consumption, East Africa receives about 9% of the heroin trade globally. Large seizures of heroin by the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) reveal East Africa's growing involvement in the global heroin trade. Totaling over 674 kg in 2012, heroin is no longer traded at small quantities. The drug is mainly shipped from Afghanistan and Pakistan through maritime and aerial routes into East African countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia. Additionally, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) indicates that the East African region is a notable conduit for heroin smuggling from Southwest Asia to other parts of the globe.
Marijuana