A group of rowdy and unkempt youths loiter around the road outside a rundown barber shop in Harare’s Highfield suburb.
As they go about their sleazy business, the few among them that are still sober enough to have some sense of security cast their eyes to check for unwanted intruders.
Police have in recent days been making spontaneous raids.
The barbershop is their base, one of several drug distribution centres dotted in this neighborhood.
So, even in their dazed state, the youths are wary of their environment.
The last thing they want is getting caught and taken away.
Investigations by The Standard revealed that tuck shops, vending stalls and several boutiques that have mushroomed in Harare are being used as drug distribution centres.
Although we were unable to pin down the drug lords other than several names loosely thrown around, we managed to establish that Zimbabwe has over the years developed a secretive multi-million dollar illicit drug industry which is well organised.
The striking feature about this industry, a mode that makes it extremely difficult to clampdown and destroy, is that behind the drug lords and their runners are high-ranking officials in government, business and even the security sector.
The drug business in Zimbabwe is protected against all manner of threat by people that have big money and big influence.
It is this expert organisational nature of this network and involvement of security minds that has successfully kept this deadly scourge largely underground and out of the limelight, until it exploded at a school in Harare.
Investigations established that there are rules set by those that run this industry, which rules dictate that drug lords and their runners operate within particular boundaries to avoid violent clashes.
This is another strategy that has helped the drug industry in this country to blossom undetected for many years.
This publication established during a two-week long investigations that Mbare, Highfield, Mufakose and Sunningdale have one dominant drug lord who supplies several groups of runners to distribute the merchandise.
During the course of the investigation, this publication spoke to many drug addicts, the drug runners and community leaders.
None of them, however, were willing to have their identies published out of fear.
Drug dealers and even their victims are feared a lot in the communities they come from.
They also have many admirers among the youth who actively protect them and ordinary residents who ironically receive food and other forms of assistance from the same drug lords that are destroying their communities.
Some of those that spoke to this pulication agreed to provide information on the strict condition of anonymity.
That is how this publication managed to get the inside story of the operation of the Highfield drug cartel in Harare.
The Highfield turf is run by a drug queen who is in her 30s (name supplied).
This particular drug baron-cum-runner gets her protection from political bigwigs.
She is linked to senior officials of the ruling Zanu PF party and is said to have amassed a lot of wealth from drugs over the years.
Her residence is protected around the clock by youths that are seen always seated outside her yard.
Known on the streets as “The Gambler”, the lady has built a reputation of ruthlessness when dealing with opponents.
“She has several distribution centres in Highfield,” one of the sources said.
“Most market stalls and tuck shops are her distribution centres.
“Those who are employed to sell the drugs know their clientele.
“They do not sell the product to strangers without thorough vetting.”
The Gambler exclusively deals in crystal meth (mutoriro) and broncleer cough syrup (Bronco).
“She imports the products from South Africa. She is untouchable.”
She is also building an eye-catching South African designed house in Highfield.
During this publication’s investigations, The Gambler had, like most drug lords, gone underground following the police drug blitz that came after the exposure of drug abuse in schools.
From Highfield our investigation took us to Harare’s oldest high-density suburb of Mbare where, like prostitution, drug abuse has spread like veld fire.
While The Gambler and her kin in Highfield and elsewhere import their wares from neighbouring countries, the Mbare drug lords manufacture most of the drugs in their backyards.
The drugs are distributed at countless spots in Mbare, mostly in the open and in broad daylight.
Mbare is now home to many music festivals such as Passa Passa and most of these are set up by the drug lords for the main purpose of selling drugs.
Many dancehall artistes have at one point or another associated with the Mbare drug lords.
“The Mbare drug kingpins have destroyed youths with drugs,” said a whistle-blower Never Maswerasei.
“They are making their own backyard version of highly intoxicating cough syrup (codeine clone) especially during the festive season when South African suppliers are closed for holidays.”
Since the launch of the drug blitz, police have managed to arrest just the “runners” and small time abusers.
They are still promising to pounce on the drug lords, some of whom they claim they know.
Two drug runner suspects, Armstrong Tayengwa and Joylene Mabika who were arrested on allegations of keeping dangerous drugs in Chitungwiza, accuse the police of deliberately avoiding to arrest a known Chitungwiza drug kingpin.
They said during court proceedings before magistrate Dennis Mangosi that there was a man who was not searched during the search for drugs, which was conducted by the police in the community.
That man, they said, was the one responsible for bringing the drugs to the accused persons’ house.
The World Health Organisation estimates that in 2019, about 180 000 people lost their lives due to drug use disorders, while substance use was responsible for 11,8 million deaths in 2017, both directly and indirectly.
A fortnight ago, the government declared war on drug lords and users as they launched a national anti-drug operation dubbed “No To Dangerous Drugs And illicit Substances; See Something Say Something”.
Harare Metropolitan Affairs and Devolution secretary Tafadzwa Muguti said the drug scourge had reached alarming levels, hence the introduction of stringent measures.
“We have stopped looking at rehabilitation first before arrest because that is the mistake we were making,” Muguti said.
“If we find someone who is under the influence of drugs, the law says that you can be arrested for being drunk and intoxicated in public.”
As of Wednesday the Zimbabwe Republic Police had arrested a total of 2 175 for the consumption and peddling of drugs and illicit substances across the country during the ongoing operation.
“On 14 February 2023, police arrested 23 people across the country during the on-going operation,” police said.
“Police in Mbare, Harare arrested 13 suspects for being found in possession of skin lightening creams and other substances without licences while others were smoking dagga. Police seized a load of the recovered drugs.”
In Masvingo, ZRP Commissioner David Mahoya revealed that some drugs and dangerous substances were being brought into the province from neighbouring South Africa.
Earlier this week, a ZRP member was nabbed for dealing drugs after he was exposed on social media.
Police intensified the fight against drug and substance abuse nationwide after the elite Catholic girls high school, Dominican Convent in Harare expelled eight students over drug abuse.
After that a lot of drug abuse instances in schools, including videos, are being brought into the public exposing rampant drug abuse especially among the youth.