Despite the national call by government to try and combat the growing rate of drug smuggling into the country, it has emerged that a high number of dagga trafficking into the country is done mostly by women.
The Criminal Investigation Police detective at the Diamond and Narcotics Squad in Francistown, Sub Inspector Timothy Nthobatsang, revealed that contrary to the belief that foreigners traffic drugs into the country, Batswana women are very much involved, especially with the smuggling of dagga from Zimbabwe and Zambia.
“Women are mostly involved in trafficking dagga, especially from the countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe, and we are calling on the public to try and come forth with information to try and stem this problem,” he said.
Nthobatsang produced statistics, which reveal that during this year alone, from January to April, about 45 culprits were arrested, most of whom being Batswana women, ranging from the ages of 21 to 73 years.e different drugs are sent into the country through parcels in post offices only to discover that they have been sent to clients or customers from other countries.
He said that other drugs that continue to rise in the country include drugs such cocaine and ecstasy.
Nthobatsang added that they work hand in hand with the post offices and the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) who normally search goods in post offices for those trying to evade tax.
“Normally when the officers from BURS screen parcels in post offices, they come across the drugs and alert us,” Nthobatsang said.
He added that recently they made a huge breakthrough in Selibe Phikwe when they arrested a woman in possession of a huge amount of dagga suspected to be from Zimbabwe.
He said that they were tipped off about the woman while they were investigating another dagga smuggling case in Tobane in the Central District involving another woman.
“Unfortunately, we have not yet weighed the drug but it is a huge amount,” he added.
However, Nthobatsang went on to state that the difficulty of arresting the drug dealers is that one has to detect the culprits through getting information from the public.
