DCEA Arrests Tanzanian National in Cross-Border Drug Case

What changed

Tanzania’s Drug Control and Enforcement Authority says it arrested seven suspects in a cross-border operation with Kenya, including Salehe Baseleman, alias Mbwiga, a Tanzanian businessman based in Mombasa.

Authorities reported:

• 299 packages seized in Tanzania: 24 of heroin and 275 of methamphetamine.
• 454 packages of methamphetamine seized in Kenya’s Kwale area on November 7.
• Two Ford Ranger vehicles impounded.
• The alleged route ran from Mombasa through Tanzania’s Horohoro border in Tanga.

DCEA also linked Mbwiga to a December 2023 seizure of 3.5 tonnes of narcotics in Kigamboni, Dar es Salaam, and Iringa.

Why it matters

This operation shows the trafficking investigation moving across the Kenya-Tanzania border, rather than stopping with arrests or seizures on one side. Tanzanian authorities say suspects collected drugs in Mombasa and transported them into Tanzania, while cooperation with Kenya’s National Anti-Narcotics Bureau helped identify a storage location and seize a further 454 packages in Kwale.

That makes the partnership itself the central development. DCEA and Kenyan authorities were able to connect arrests in Tanzania with a separate operation in coastal Kenya, bringing seven suspects into the same legal process.

The alleged roles and wider structure of the network remain subject to legal proceedings. Cross-border procedures are still underway to bring the suspects before the relevant courts.