EAST AFRICAN POLICE TARGET CANNABIS FIELDS

Cannabis plantations will be destroyed from the air Police chiefs in East
Africa have endorsed a plan for aerial spraying to destroy cannabis
plantations in a bid to combat drug-use and trafficking.

Speaking at the end of a three day meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's
director for criminal investigations Adadi Rajabu said police chiefs from
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania had recommended aerial spraying as a means of
attacking the source of cannabis supplies.

Criminal investigators and anti-narcotics experts from the region, who were
also at the meeting, agreed on joint cross-border strategies against drugs,
including efforts to promote education about drug-abuse.

At the closing ceremony, the British High commissioner called for urgent
measures to prevent East Africa from becoming a hub for drug trafficking.

"Most worrying is the evidence that large, multi-kilo quantities of heroin
are staying in the region. Preventive action is required before the region
becomes a safe haven for drug barons or a warehouse of hard drugs," Bruce
Dinwiddy warned.

"It is also evident that most of the drugs could easily find their way to
Europe, America and other parts of the world through ports and other points
of exit in East Africa," he noted.