The national gendarmerie arrested three suspected hard drug traffickers on Wednesday. Foreign nationals, one of whom is under a sentence of forced labor.
Methamphetamine. Here is the prohibited product found in the possession of three alleged traffickers of hard drugs arrested by the national gendarmerie on Wednesday. They are three Nigerien nationals arrested near Andohatapenaka and Ambodimita.
This dragnet is part of the fight once morest the proliferation of hard drugs in Antananarivo, led by the Defense and Security Forces (FDS).
The three thieves were identified, tracked and then arrested following intelligence operations carried out by elements of the black berets, according to the explanations. “At the time of their arrest, the three individuals were in possession of 15 grams of methamphetamines intended for sale”, adds a source close to the investigation. The three alleged drug traffickers are in police custody at the Antananarivo-ville gendarmerie brigade, located in Betongolo. The investigation is ongoing, according to the source familiar with the matter. One of the theses taken into account is the connection of Wednesday’s arrest with the kidnappings of teenage girls and young women who hit the headlines in May and June, in the capital and its surroundings. Facts that have created a popular psychosis. Analyzes of blood samples taken from the victims revealed that they had been drugged.
Methamphetamine is among the hard drugs found in the blood of victims of the May and June kidnappings. The report of the analyzes of blood samples, published by the Ministry of Public Health on June 7, attests to this.
A conviction still in progress
Along with cocaine and heroin, or even opium, methamphetamine has also been on the list of hard drugs that have flooded the narcotics market in the capital and other cities of Madagascar for several months.
Like cocaine, methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant that quickly leads to a state of euphoria. According to the explanations, the action methodology of the traffickers to entice potential “customers” would be to offer them free doses until they become dependent on them. These narcotics with devastating effects wreak havoc especially among adolescents and young adults.
These hard drugs spare no social class. Law enforcement officials say they have been the causes of the proliferation of urban insecurity for some time. Driven by addiction, individuals in need and without resources can go as far as murder to find enough to buy doses of these hard drugs. Indiscretions confide that a pickpocket recently arrested by the police and accused of having seriously injured a radio presenter, would be a consumer of these powerful narcotics, in particular heroin.
So far, the police are struggling to dismantle the networks of traffickers of these hard drugs. Questions regarding the sources of supply of those who flood the country’s major cities with these powerful narcotics also remain unanswered. In view of the elements of information resulting from the crackdown on Wednesday, the networks of traffickers seem to have the financial strength necessary to escape the clutches of justice.
One of the three Nigerien nationals arrested by the national gendarmerie is, in fact, “a repeat offender”, moreover, still under the control of a judicial conviction. One of the three thieves arrested by the gendarmerie must, in principle, still serve a five-year prison sentence. A sentence pronounced by the anti-corruption center (PAC), of Antananarivo. This conviction runs from February 25, 2021, to February 25, 2026. A conviction is therefore still in progress. This verdict stems from a trial for drug trafficking, precisely. Already, methamphetamine trafficking is the main charge that has been brought once morest him. The convict was, however, once once more arrested, frolicking in the open air and without fear, in one of the districts of Antananarivo, for drug trafficking, on Wednesday.
