By Hou AKot Hou
The Northern Bahr El Ghazal State’s police commissioner has vowed to tackle the issue of illegal drug dealers, especially tramadol and other drugs known as Longo.
Addressing the media on Tuesday at Aweil police headquarters, Maj. Gen. Gabriel Guet Padiet said the crackdown has managed to amass over 653 cartons of Tramadol and other substances known as Longo.
Guet said they have seen that many young men and women in their mid-20s are engaged in these illicit businesses, which they started to stop earlier this year.
“This week we have begun a crackdown on our young boys and girls who are selling Tramadol. Our goal is to save the lives of the people of Northern Bahr El Ghazal State and to protect their lives and property; it is by preventing these drugs. Even if we say that we are safe, selling or allowing these drugs is harmful and is a great menace among us,” he said.
Commissioner Padiet said they have confiscated 653 cartons of all assortments, mainly made up or filled with tramadol, and that the young people have designated centers, in clinics.
“There are clinics for this tramadol, and they are of two types: one written as Tramadol. We have captured 653 boxes, and they were found in the Gateway residential area in a house of a young lady and a boy. These are dangerous acts being done by the young people,” he said.
With the help of the Criminal Investigation Department officers, Guet said they admitted that they were brought from Customs in Juba and smuggled into the state through Sudan.
“We got a drug called manga (Mango), also known as Longo, and the women whom we captured last time were sentenced to 5-6 months in jail as they brought Longo, which made people not get hungry, and they are dangerous if our young people keep inhaling it,” she said.
Padiet says another woman was sentenced for allegedly engaging in illegal business, and she is now serving her term in jail.
Commissioner Padiet also warns local women against abandoning children or newborn children on the streets in the rural villages and the urban centers in the face of economic hardship, underscoring the need to preserve the cultural aspect of not killing a human being.
“Our people are becoming uncultured nowadays; we need leaders like Dr. John Garang, who died in mysterious ways, to be replaced by the young generation. Why kill them as an option? Why? What do you want to achieve in so doing?”
He said many cases of young women have been noted to be on the rise, as young women are presumed to have delivered the child at Malualkon Hospital and disappeared, as they remain at large.
It remains uncertain whether the authorities in the state will help succeed in containing the use of tramadol and other substances such as shisha and others, which are reported to be contributing to the rise in crimes and accidents, as young men are being accused of riding speedily without control once they are under its influence.
Tramadol is a synthetic analgesic opiate used for the relief of pain, but it is necessary only when medics prescribe it.