Wanjiku arrested in Tanzania

A Kenyan woman has been arrested in Dar es Salaam for possession of three kilogrammes of heroin worth millions of shillings.

Rebecca Wanjiku, 48 was apprehended at the Ubungo upcountry bus terminal in the city allegedly in the process of trying to transport the narcotics to South Africa.

She had just arrived in Dar es Salaam from Nairobi by bus.

Tanzanian head of the police anti-drugs unit, Godfrey Nzowa said the suspect had tried to hide the heroin by carefully stuffing it in different compartments amongst her clothes in her luggage.

Police sources say the woman claimed the drugs to be worth around 500 million Tanzania shillings and that she was planning to transport them by road from Tanzania to South Africa through Zambia and Botswana.

But anti-drugs unit officials said they believed the drugs to be worth around 40.9 million Tanzania shillings.

"The woman's travel documents show that she originated from Nairobi and had a visa to travel to South Africa," said Nzowa.

Samples of the drugs confiscated from the suspect will be sent to the government chemist's laboratory agency for analysis as part of police investigations, he added.

The arrest of the Kenyan woman marks the first time in recent history that police have managed to make a substantial drug burst at the Ubungo bus terminal.

Various officials have often expressed belief that the terminal, which caters for buses plying both domestic and international routes, has over the years become a key transit point for drug traffickers.

In the past, the more favoured method for such traffickers to transport narcotics to and from the country has been by air.