drugs in mauritius essay

Published on 13 May 2020 in ISS Today

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Mauritius battles a growing synthetic drugs problem

Government’s progressive public health stance reduced cannabis and heroin use, but isn’t working for synthetic drugs..

By Richard Chelin

For decades Mauritius has been a popular destination for traffickers of traditional drugs such as heroin and cannabis. Despite the hefty prison sentences the offence carries, there are daily media reports on drug seizures and the arrest of traffickers.

Recently though the island has seen a rise in synthetic drugs. Each year since 2015, the number of people arrested for synthetic drug offences has doubled, reaching 1 059 in 2018. Public health institutions have also recorded growing in-patient cases of drug abuse – 44% of drug abuse cases in 2017 were related to new psychoactive substances (NPS).

The ENACT Organised Crime Index for Africa ranks Mauritius number one in the synthetic drug trade in Southern Africa and in the top 10 on the continent.

Synthetic drugs are manufactured in laboratories using chemicals to mimic traditional narcotics or hallucinogens such as marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, amphetamine-type stimulants and even morphine. Based on seizure data , the most common types of these drugs in Mauritius are synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic cathinones.

Synthetic drugs present a new and worrying era for the drug market in Mauritius

The history of drugs in the country is key to understanding the problem. Substance abuse in Mauritius dates back to the 1970s when heroin was first introduced on the island. The problem has escalated significantly, with the 2010 World Drug Report revealing that Mauritius had the highest prevalence of opioid use in Africa.

The government has struggled to contain the problem despite adopting a holistic public health stance on drug abuse by moving away from the traditional ‘war on drugs’ approach. Various initiatives have been introduced, including harm-reduction strategies, needle and syringe exchange programmes, opioid substitution treatment and drug awareness programmes.

The change in approach has shown some success, notably a reduction in cannabis and traditional opioid use such as heroin. But the synthetic drug problem is increasing, and is a burden on both the law enforcement and public health systems.

Former attorney-general and justice minister Rama Valayden told media that ‘there is no way to win the fight against synthetic drugs.’ He said drug producers were replacing compounds in the drug faster than law enforcement could detect them.

Producers of synthetic drugs are replacing compounds in the drug faster than police can detect them

The drugs are obtained in various forms. Chemicals used for their production can be imported online in powder or liquid form, and it’s estimated that about 95% of those ingredients are imported from China. Unlike heroin or cocaine, synthetics can be produced at home using products such as pesticides, rubber, rat poison and detergents, among others.

This changes the dynamics of the traditional drug trafficking system. There’s little reliance on the hierarchical structure of a producer or supplier at the top, transport networks into the country and street-level dealing. Synthetic drug systems have ‘democratised’ the drug economy – it’s now open to anyone.

Despite this, the government has made some strides in addressing the problem. A commission of inquiry was established in 2015 to ‘inquire into, and report on, all aspects of drug trafficking in Mauritius.’ One of its tasks was to look into the availability of new types of drugs, including synthetic and designer drugs.

The commission report, released in 2018, made over 400 recommendations and government has been acting on some and evaluating others. One includes establishing the National Drug Observatory to monitor illicit drug use, abuse and trafficking in the country.

Synthetic drug systems have ‘democratised’ the drug economy – it’s open to anyone

In 2019 government launched the National Drug Control Master Plan 2019-2023 focusing on: supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction. A mechanism to coordinate legislation, an implementation framework, monitoring and evaluation, and strategic information was also included. The plan emphasises three aspects to succeed: capacity building, respect and observance of human rights, and gender mainstreaming.

The national plan has practical objectives and clear outputs, but will it curb the synthetic drug problem? To succeed policies must be practical and relevant, and implemented properly. Key aspects to consider are young people’s willingness to experiment with new drugs and the low cost of manufacturing of these narcotics.

In the short term, government could use existing drug laws or adapt them to be more responsive. Coupled with other forms of legislation, more comprehensive approaches could be created. A new law could also be passed specifically for synthetic drugs focusing on the import, export and sale of any addictive or harmful psychoactive substance. An example is Ireland’s Psychoactive Substance Act of 2010 .

An early warning system based in the Mauritius National Drug Observatory could monitor synthetic drugs and provide an understanding of its market and characteristics. This information could inform policy and prevention and awareness programmes aimed at reducing the harmful consumption of these substances.

Synthetic drugs present a new era for the drug market in Mauritius. The low price and availability of the ingredients coupled with greater reach to buyers through advanced technology enable traffickers to remain a step ahead of law enforcement. Unless this pattern changes, traffickers will have the upper hand and the synthetic drugs problem will expand on the island.

Richard Chelin, Researcher, ENACT project, ISS  

This article was   first published  by the  ENACT  project. ENACT   is funded by the European Union (EU). The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the EU.

In South Africa,  Daily Maverick  has exclusive rights to re-publish ISS Today articles. For media based outside South Africa and queries about our re-publishing policy,  email us .

Picture:  ZENMAURITIUS

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‘Kids whose insides are destroyed’: The return of drug abuse to Mauritius

The island nation is grappling with a drug epidemic of unprecedented proportions, years after usage and peddling peaked there in the ’90s.

Port Louis, Mauritius – Until early 2022, Gaetan (real name withheld) was earning a decent living as a construction worker, helping on sites around Mauritius, when he made a snap decision that would turn his life upside down.

While smoking a cigarette with colleagues during his lunch break one day, the 35-year-old was offered the opportunity to buy some heroin. Within weeks, he was taking it daily to stave off the aches and pains of withdrawal.

“That one decision cost me dearly,” he tells Al Jazeera. Soon he was dipping into his hard-earned savings to find the 2,000 Mauritian rupees ($45) he needed for his four daily doses. His fellow addicts at work would strip copper wires or lift corrugated iron and white goods off the streets, selling the metal to fund their habit  – a common practice in the city.

In the grip of addiction for a few months, Gaetan realised he had to get out fast. But after two weeks of quitting drug use, he relapsed. Eventually, he found his way to the Idrice Goomany Treatment Centre, located in the heart of Port Louis, where he completed an intensive six-month detox programme.

He still visits weekly for counseling and is a rare success story on this tiny island of 1.3 million people being ravaged by a drug epidemic of unprecedented proportions. Heroin addiction, which peaked in the ‘90s, has made a roaring comeback in the country, the drug rerouted to its shores through Madagascar on its journey from Afghanistan to East and Southern Africa.

In parallel, synthetics have taken hold – drugs like “Black Mamba”, “Rambo” and “Murder” made with chemicals from China, which are mixed with thinner or pesticides and sprayed onto tea, tobacco or herbs, providing highly toxic hits to youngsters. “The advantage of synthetics is that they are cheap,” says Imran Dhanoo, director of the centre. Schoolkids club together to buy a hit for 100 Mauritian rupees ($2), he says.

“Today, drugs are the country’s number one problem,” says Mario Ah-Sian, director of the Centre d’Accueil de Terre Rouge, another treatment centre located a few kilometres from Port Louis. The 63-year-old quit heroin 23 years ago and has since devoted his life to helping others free themselves from the affliction. Drugs have wreaked havoc all over the island, sparking a wave of robberies and assaults, he says.

According to a 2021 official survey, around 55,000 people between the ages of 18 and 59 (7.4 percent of that tranche of the population) consume non-injectable drugs, including cannabis, synthetics and heroin ingested by sniffing, snorting or smoking.

Calculations were based on small samples rather than boots-on-the-ground fieldwork, says Ah-Sian. Like many others Al Jazeera spoke to, he believes the real figures are much higher.

In Karo Kalyptus, the impact of the fast-growing drugs trade is easy to see. This is the epicentre of the island’s narco scene, an area targeted last July in a meticulously-planned police raid that hauled 77 million Mauritian rupees (more than $1.7m) worth of cannabis, synthetics and heroin. Looking around the tiny enclave, a ramshackle cluster of raw concrete and rusting corrugated iron shacks deep within the impoverished suburb of Roche Bois, it’s hard to believe such large sums transit through here.

Al Jazeera met three local women in Karo Kalyptus. They spoke using pseudonyms while stressing that they were sick of seeing their young being destroyed by drugs. Life here is tough, says Marie, who washes clothes for a living and notes that many kids don’t go to school, some starting on drugs as early as age 10. “Ena zanfan inn fini andan,” she says, in Creole – “there are kids whose insides are destroyed”. Earlier this year, she stumbled upon a dead man on the street, whom she believes overdosed on heroin.

Claudine, another one of the women, says crystal meth and a new product called “ladrog zombi” (“zombie drug”), which renders users comatose, are becoming more prevalent on the market. The name of the latter drug and the description of its effects appear to tally with recent reports of animal tranquilliser xylazine arriving in neighbouring Reunion.

Locals here are employed as lookouts. They earn 1,500-2,000 rupees ($34-45) per day, a relatively lucrative pay packet in a country where many struggle on a minimum wage of 15,000 rupees ($340) a month in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.  Often, lookouts receive advance notice of police visits, sometimes as long as two hours. “Someone on the inside is giving them the information,” says Claudine.

‘No political will’

In 2018, a state-appointed commission of inquiry found clear evidence of mafia influence over a variety of actors, including police, prison guards, lawyers, customs officials and politicians. It advised that the country’s Anti Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU), judged too rotten to reform, be dismantled. Five years later, ADSU lives on, its influence bolstered by the creation of a complementary force called the Special Striking Team (SST) made up of former officers from ADSU ranks.

As next year’s election slides into view, the government of Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth has stepped up its war on drugs with sombre billboards announcing “Unis Contre la Drogue – United against Drugs”. But, critics claim the SST is a political tool of Jugnauth’s Militant Socialist Movement (MSM), calling his sincerity into question. Officers have arrested high-profile targets, including lawyer Akil Bissessur and activist Bruneau Laurette, known for advocacy against police brutality and narco influence, on provisional charges of drug trafficking or fraud.

The government also stands accused of protecting the island’s biggest trafficker. Jean-Hubert Célerine, aka Franklin, was sentenced to seven years in prison for inter-island trafficking by authorities in neighbouring Reunion in 2021.

Yet he remains in Mauritius, where he is currently being investigated for money laundering. So low is public trust in the government that many suspect the probe was set up to delay the kingpin’s extradition. “If he talks, a lot of senior heads will roll,” says Ally Lazer, a veteran social worker, who has waged a decades-long campaign against drugs on the island.

“There’s no political will to fight the drugs mafia,” says Nando Bodha, former secretary-general of the ruling MSM, who left the party after witnessing its lurch towards autocracy close up. Now with Linion Moris, a multi-party alliance, he wants to overhaul a system he believes is corruption-ridden. “More and more, we’re turning into a narco economy,” he says. “Drug money is involved in horse racing, betting, casinos and retail businesses. Kingpins have infiltrated the judicial and legal systems”.

Al Jazeera contacted the Government Information Service for an interview, but got no response.

Recovery and redemption

As drugs become more enmeshed in the fabric of daily life, the country is reviewing its treatment of addicts, moving away from the repressive policies of old. Right now, the government is setting up a panel to shepherd users through the various stages of recovery – from rehabilitation to reintegration. It’s a move welcomed by Dhanoo who wants to see more addicts in treatment centres, rather than in prison.

But, until narco influence is tackled, the problem won’t be going away any time soon. Gaetan recalls how easy it was to dodge ADSU officers in Baie du Tombeau when he was out buying doses of “brown”, as heroin is known locally. “There were about four of five dealers in the area. Everyone knew where the police was,” he says.

Slowly, he is recovering. In his village of Flacq, where “most people are on something, young, old, men, women”, he has cut off contact with former associates and only leaves his home to go to work or buy food, always ensuring he only carries a strict minimum of cash.

“I feel like before I started taking it, but I know I’ve changed,” Gaetan says. “It’s a curse. It finishes you off.”

Drug trafficking / Breaking Bans: the scourge of synthetic drugs in Mauritius

Synthetic drugs have created a public-health crisis and changed drug market dynamics in the country..

Synthetic drugs, more specifically, new psychoactive substances (NPSs), were first detected in Mauritius in 2013 and since then have had a significant negative impact, overtaking heroin as the most popular drug among young people. The government has developed various policies to address the issue, the most recent being the National Drug Control Masterplan, which promotes collaboration among law enforcement agencies. However, the success of the strategy will depend on its effective implementation.

About the author

Richard Chelin is a researcher in the ENACT programme focusing on the Southern Africa region.

Photo © Adobe Stock – BUSLIQ.

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Narcotics: How synthetics is reshaping the drug business in Mauritius…

1 décembre 2020

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The death of a policewoman on duty during an antinarcotics operation has thrown into sharp relief the fact that the authorities are struggling with the synthetic drug problem. How did synthetics rise in Mauritius and how is it changing the whole picture of drug business in Mauritius?

The death of woman police constable Dimple Raghoo during an anti-narcotics operation has only underscored the serious problem that Mauritius is facing when it comes to tackling the problem of synthetic drugs. And it is becoming a bigger problem; just this year, 15 people died from synthetic drug use. According to the latest National Drug Observatory Report (NDOR) released this month, no less than 41 percent of all drug-related arrests by the Anti-Drug Smuggling Unit (ADSU) involved synthetics, with the drugs accounting for nearly 35 percent of all drug cases reported to the authorities. A far cry from just a few years ago when synthetics was all but unknown in the country.

How is it that this drug has taken Mauritius by storm? Synthetics, as it were, was the product of good intentions. Researchers studying the endocannabinoid system, crucial for normal function, developed more potent artificial chemicals to replace THC (the active compound in marijuana) to better stimulate – and study – receptors in the brain. These studies were then hijacked by drug dealers to develop synthetic drugs, artificial cocktails to mimic and enhance the effect of marijuana. First appearing in the US, synthetics then spread to Europe before China became firmly established as a center for illicitly manufacturing synthetic drugs.

Sam Lauthan, former minister and one of the assessors who helped come up with the report of the 2018 drug commission, tells l’express , “A few years ago, when we were coming up with the report, it was estimated that there were as many as 400,000 underground labs in China; since then India too has emerged as a major manufacturer of synthetic drugs.” When the Americans and the Europeans realized they were facing a synthetic drug epidemic, the laws were tightened in these countries to fight it, beginning in 2003 in the US and 2008 in European Union states, leading the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to note in 2018, that synthetic drug manufacturers then turned to pumping these drugs into states where the laws to combat synthetic drugs were either weak or non-existent. The drugs commission report in 2018 called it ‘dumping’.

Mauritius first came to know it had a synthetic drug problem in 2013 with the authorities recording two cases involving synthetics. Just like synthetic drug cases in Europe, it started out with chemicals used to manufacture synthetics shipped via mail from China. The drug commission noted that no less than 95 percent of the chemical components to manufacture the drugs were coming from Chinese drug labs – and more recently from Indian labs too - and ordered online from Mauritius on underground sites on the dark web and the Silk Road.

Taken by surprise

The entrance of synthetics, the drug commission noted, had taken Mauritian authorities “by surprise”. These drugs were entering in various forms, Lauthan points out, “as powder, liquids, crystals and packaged as candles, fertilizers, bath salts, lipstick and even candy.” The drugs came in, dissolved in commercially available solvents, like benzene and acetone, and then sprayed on tealeaves and tobacco to be smoked. As synthetics started flooding in, the commission said, out of the 18 sniffer dogs kept by the police, not even one was trained to detect synthetics. Nor did the ADSU or the Forensic Science Lab have the proper equipment to break down the ingredients used to manufacture these synthetic drugs, nor did the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) list the chemicals used in manufacturing synthetic drugs as items of concern.

In 2013, the DDA was changed to include synthetic cannabinoids as an illegal drug, but even then, cases were arising where police were forced to let drug dealers go simply because their raids were taking place before the dealer had actually treated the (legal) chemical components into the (illegal) synthetic drugs. In 2019, the government significantly expanded the DDA to include such chemicals on its list. The Public Accounts Committee Report released in November last noted that government studies such as the Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance (IBBS) survey only dealt with the more traditional problem of injectable heroin rather than smoked synthetics, resulting in the authorities having no estimate of the actual number of drug users in the country.

When the authorities started cracking down on synthetics coming from abroad via the post office, that led to another problem. Synthetic dealers in Mauritius started cooking up their own cocktails in basements and garages to keep feeding the market . “This is when the danger really began as they started a trial-and-error process mixing different combinations of chemicals to make up for market demand,” explains Lauthan. In this, Mauritius synthetic dealers were simply aping European ecstasy peddlers, who dealt with a global shortage of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in 2005 by substituting it with different chemicals.

By 2014, ecstasy tablets in Europe were chemically unrecognizable. The result of this experimentation on the local synthetic drug market was a sharp spike in synthetic-related hospitalizations between 2015 and 2018. The number of hospitalizations following synthetic drug use doubled from 552 in 2015 to 1,089 in 2017, before starting to fall to 854 in 2018 and 834 in 2019. “This is because synthetic dealers in Mauritius were refining their product; after all, they didn’t want to kill off their customers,” Lauthan points out.

The nature of synthetics themselves is changing the Mauritian drug market. The first problem is that, since the manufacture of synthetics involves legal chemicals, it is hard to control these by law. “Solvents like benzene are available at any hardware shop or construction site,” says Imran Dhanoo, of the Idrice Goomany Centre for the prevention and treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction, one of the largest NGOs in Mauritius dealing with drug rehabilitation. Former Attorney General Yatin Varma says that this is becoming a real problem. “Synthetic drugs are easily produced and the DDA will have to be constantly updated to tackle it; it might not be able to foresee everything but it will have to constantly change to adapt according to the circumstances,” Varma insists.

Unlike plant-based drugs that Mauritius is used to dealing with, such as heroin or marijuana whose chemical components hardly change, synthetics pose a unique challenge. Within Mauritius alone, so far 35 varieties of synthetics have been discovered by the authorities. In Europe, the 2020 EU Drug Report found 50 new types of synthetics since 2019 alone, with the UNODC recording just under a thousand different combinations of synthetics worldwide thus far. What this means is that the DDA and anti-drug laws will have to constantly be playing catch-up as synthetic traffickers keep changing their product to stay ahead of the law. The drugs commission in 2018 also pointed to the challenge of convincing law enforcement to adapt to this style of combating drugs, pointing to officers shrugging that controlling the importing of legal chemicals (that could be used to manufacture synthetics) was not their job and the total absence of any kind of monitoring on the sale of such chemicals within the country.

The other factor is the low-price tag of synthetics. Unlike heroin or cannabis, which require land and time to grow, synthetics can be hurriedly cooked up in a lab and treated with a gram of synthetic powder to produce up to 300g of finished synthetic drugs. Lauthan gives an indication of this; a cannabis plant takes between four to nine months to grow depending on its variety, but a synthetic cannabinoid (the main form of synthetics consumed in Mauritius) just takes 12 hours to treat and prepare and it is ready for the market. “It’s so simple that even students are now doing it,” says Varma. Recently a 19-year old was arrested for preparing synthetics for sale. Because of that, synthetics are undercutting other drugs in Mauritius in terms of price: Rs100 for a dose of synthetic cannabinoids, compared to Rs300 for marijuana and Rs500 for heroin.

In many ways, the disruption on the drug market being caused by synthetics closely resembles the start of the heroin epidemic in 1983. A crackdown on cannabis (the traditional drug of choice) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, created a shortage and vacuum on the drug market that was swiftly filled by brown sugar (an adulterated form of heroin). “People simply switched to heroin, which was then selling for Rs12 to Rs15 a dose, and quickly addiction rates grew,” Dhanoo recalls. A transnational network quickly grew out of that with Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion forming a smuggling axis for heroin, the rise of prominent drug barons. In 1985, following the publication of a report by Madun Dulloo, the idea of the death penalty for drug traffickers (an idea that still makes the rounds each time there is a major drug-related crime). Heroin soon found itself in Mauritian politics too, particularly following the Amsterdam Boys affair in 1985 when four parliamentarians were caught in Schipol airport, Amsterdam carrying 20kg of heroin. Subsequently, politicians accusing one another of being involved in heroin business became a regular part of Mauritian politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Ironically, the cause of the synthetic epidemic today is the same as the one, which caused the heroin one: the crackdown on marijuana. “What we are seeing at our centre is a generational shift in terms of drug use,” maintains Dhanoo, “about 60 percent of people come in to treat heroin addiction but now 40 percent are coming in to treat addiction to synthetics.” Dhanoo’s numbers closely mirror the proportions reported from addiction centres in public hospitals too, according to the latest NDOR. But with a twist: all those coming in after taking synthetics are aged under 24, whereas those coming in to treat heroin use tend to be older.

A new business model

For young people in Mauritius, cannabis is the drug of choice with police statistics reporting that most juveniles in Mauritius traditionally being hauled in for marijuana. But with the combined effect of a marijuana shortage on the market due to police crackdowns (150,503 marijuana plants uprooted by the authorities between 2017 and 2019), driving up the price of marijuana and the easy availability of low-cost synthetic cannabinoids, it explains why it is primarily the youth that are suffering from synthetics, so much so that by 2018, secondary schools were sounding the alarm. “Most young people – I have not come across a single user of synthetics over the age of 40 - coming into our centre say that they either cannot find cannabis on the market or it’s too expensive, which is why they switch to cheaper synthetics instead,” insists Dhanoo. This is borne out by police figures too: in 2018, the ADSU arrested 31 juveniles with synthetics; 20 with marijuana; and just 8 with heroin. In 2019, it was still 27 with synthetics and 11 with marijuana. The synthetic problem is basically a problem of the youth switching from marijuana to cheaper, and deadlier, synthetics. This was noted by the 2018 drugs commission report when it noted that, when it comes to marijuana, “repression has not really eliminated drug use; at best, it has moved the users on to other drugs, including new synthetics.” It is this insight, which has also led some parties, such as the Mouvement militant mauricien (MMM) to now call for decriminalization of medical marijuana and dropping prison sentences for marijuana possession.

A new kind of drug is also giving rise to a new kind of drug business. Heroin needs to be imported and is hence expensive. That created a new class of drug barons in Mauritius using drug mules from Madagascar and Southern Africa, and smuggling routes between Madagascar and Reunion, that has been roiling our politics and society for decades. Synthetics, not needing land or extensive smuggling networks, just an empty garage and some lab equipment to pump out cheap drugs, is giving rise to an entirely new business model with a new generation of younger – more low-key - drug traffickers . “From the discussions I have had with people coming in to my centre, it’s not the heroin traffickers that are branching into synthetics; this is new blood coming in, a new generation that does not need to operate in the same fashion,” concludes Dhanoo.

Source: Statistics Mauritius

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Parc Coson: What dynamics in the drug-dealing capital of Mauritius tell us about networks, protection structures and the challenges to responses.

A queue to buy drugs at a key distribution point in Parc Coson, a drug-selling hotspot in Port Louis, Mauritius, October 2018. Although sheds identified as key distribution points have been destroyed since, sales have merely shifted elsewhere in the area, which remains the centre of the island’s drug economy.

Photo: Vel Moonien

Parc Coson is a key drug selling spot in Mauritius, and many PWUD travel to the area to buy drugs.

Mascarene martins are a species common to Mauritius. A ‘martin’ is also a term used in Mauritius to mean a lookout working for a drug dealer.

Photos: Dick Daniels via Wikipedia

On 10 March 2021, Mauritius entered its second lockdown to counter the spread of COVID‑19 and all non-essential businesses closed. Yet in the area known as Parc Coson (Creole for ‘pig park’), a slum in the Roche Bois suburb of Port Louis and the drug-selling capital of the island, it was business as usual. Similar trends were seen in March 2020, when the drugs market boomed throughout lockdown. While vegetable prices soared owing to scarcity, heroin prices remained steady as supply appeared unaffected. 1

Both PWUD and academics at the University of Mauritius point to the resilience of the drugs market during COVID‑19 and the lack of lockdown enforcement in Parc Coson as further evidence of corruption, which is the single greatest structural enabler of the island’s longstanding drugs market. 2

The drugs market is by far the largest illicit economy in Mauritius. The country has long suffered from extremely high opiate consumption and falls only slightly behind the neighbouring Seychelles, which is afflicted by the highest opiate consumption rate in the world. Reports from the National Drug Observatory since 2016 point to a sustained increase in overall drug use year on year. 3 Stakeholders interviewed during 2020 and early 2021 corroborated this, and pointed to an acceleration particularly in heroin use in 2020. 4

Scrutinizing dynamics in Parc Coson during the two COVID‑19 lockdowns in Mauritius provides insight into the evolving nature of the networks profiting from the trade, the protection structures underpinning the island’s drugs market, and the challenges undermining current government responses.

• Dealing dynamics in the Mauritian drugs capital

Many PWUD travel to Parc Coson, near the port area of the capital, to buy drugs, making it the most profitable drug-selling spot on the island. Ali, who lives in Plaine Verte, a suburb close to Roche Bois, buys his doses of psychotropic pills and synthetic cannabinoids in Parc Coson. ‘Drugs are available since early morning till late at night. Even during this second lockdown … you can have your dose. Even the watchers are still on the lookout at Parc Coson’. 5 Ali concluded that local police patrols are busy elsewhere enforcing lockdown.

Lookouts, known as ‘martins’ after a small bird common to Mauritius, are typically paid in drugs or between 1 000 and 1 300 rupees per day (US$25–37); this amount is similar to the daily wage of a skilled manual labourer such as a stonemason. 6 Access to Parc Coson is tightly controlled, and the lookouts will shout crapaud ! (‘toad’ in Creole and French) to warn of approaching police. 7 Casual observers looking to enter the area report being told that access is blocked by construction work, and purposefully steered away.

‘The drug peddlers prey on deprived areas to run their business,’ said Marie, a social worker in Parc Coson. 8 Most residents of Parc Coson live in shacks with corrugated tin roofs propped up by eucalyptus poles, in stark contrast with the rapid development seen elsewhere on the island.

Parc Coson was ‘drug and crime free long ago … a kind of haven for the needy, who could not afford a house,’ says Marie. Now ‘there is some kind of stigmatization in the Mauritian society with regard to people living near this hotspot. No taxi will venture in this area at night, even if it’s an emergency.’

Many Parc Coson residents are Rodriguans, who have emigrated from the nearby island in search of work and represent some of the poorest demographics in Mauritius. Rodriguans are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by drug networks and are prevalent among the lower echelons of networks in Parc Coson, finding employment as low-level dealers, ‘go fasts’ (who deliver drugs and transport money) or lookouts. 9

The profitability of the Parc Coson’s drugs trade has attracted many networks and dealers. However, growing demand keeps competition between networks in check, and players purportedly act like a cooperative, pooling finances to import drugs in bulk, with each then taking their share once the stock arrives on the island.

Four key players are under surveillance in Parc Coson: one individual entrepreneur, Hansley Selvanaden Moothoosamy, and three networks, namely Demolition, Suicide Squad (believed to operate as a subunit of Demolition) and Lekip Prelart (‘Tarpauline Team’). 10 Moothoosamy is more commonly known as ‘Gros Quart’, after the generous ‘quarter gram’ of heroin he purportedly sells.

Members of the network known as the ‘Suicide Squad’, celebrating with bottles of Johnnie Walker Red Label. This brand of whisky, together with the heavy golden jewellery sported by some members, are typical trappings of the flashy lifestyles of the ‘new generation’ of dealers in Mauritius.

Photo: Social media

One of the most long-standing and powerful networks in the Mauritian drug trade, Demolition, has been operating for over a decade. The founders originally specialized in heroin trafficking, but later diversified their operations to include a broader range of drugs, such as synthetic cannabinoids. The founders, two cousins, operate discretely, making efforts to avoid the flashy trappings of wealth.

In contrast, Gros Quart, Suicide Squad and Tarpauline Team typify a new generation of dealers, who sport flashy lifestyles evidenced by heavy gold jewellery, gold teeth, luxury SUVs and expensive liquor (Johnnie Walker Red Label whisky is a particular favourite). 11 Stories of dealers flaunting their wealth abound: one Parc Coson dealer reportedly used two bottles of champagne (each costing approximately 10 000 rupees) to clean the windscreen of his Porsche Cayenne and to bathe his flip-flopped feet. 12

The Anti-Drugs and Smuggling Unit (ADSU) arrested Gros Quart on 27 February 2021, being in possession of over 1 million rupees in cash, gold jewellery and 2.4 grams of cannabis. 13 Charged with money laundering, Gros Quart remains in jail pending full trial. The use of money laundering charges against Gros Quart is in line with a broader strategy leveraged by ADSU and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) to prosecute suspected mid- and higher-level dealers, who are often difficult to catch with large amounts of drugs.

• Corruption in Parc Coson

Although Parc Coson has been a key drug distribution point for over a decade, its notoriety surged in 2018 following a media report showing a queue of over 50 people lining up at a shed in the area to buy drugs (see the photograph on page 19). 14

This triggered ADSU to bulldoze the shed and Aadil Ameer Meea, opposition MP of Port Louis Maritime and Port Louis East’s constituency, to repeatedly raise the issue of drug trafficking in Parc Coson in Parliament. 15

‘The situation hasn’t change since 2018,’ stated Meea, interviewed in February 2021. ‘Why can’t the police arrest the drug peddlers? Is there collusion between them and the local ADSU team? … Is there a lack of will to stop them?’ 16 Meea’s questions were repeatedly echoed by stakeholders interviewed in Parc Coson and elsewhere in Mauritius.

Marie suggested that ‘some officers [in Parc Coson] are doing their job. You can’t blame all the police force for one rotten apple.’ 17 However, PWUD, prison officials and lawyers interviewed in 2020 and early 2021 were consistent in their observations that corruption is widespread within the ADSU, with one ICAC official dubbing the unit ‘rotten’ owing to corruption. 18

Corruption is particularly acute in units tasked with patrolling highly profitable drugs hotspots; two members of the ADSU unit patrolling Parc Coson, including a senior officer, are currently under investigation by ICAC for allegedly conspiring to transport drugs in police vehicles. 19

The Constitutional Commission of Inquiry found corruption to be endemic across Mauritius’ criminal justice infrastructure, and recommended disbandment of the ADSU in 2018. 20 Like the vast majority of the 460 recommendations made by the commission, this recommendation has not yet been implemented, engendering widespread frustration at a perceived stagnation in the government’s response to the drugs market. 21 Many commentators point to high-level protection of the drugs market, not only in law enforcement but also across other state institutions, as the most significant obstacle to an effective response.

• State response to the drugs market

The government’s response to the drugs market is heavily premised on interdiction, 22 as reflected in ADSU arrest figures increasing from 1 767 in 2015 to almost 3 400 in 2020 for drug-related offences. 23 However, despite the increase in arrests there has been an ‘upsurge in drug trafficking’ since 2015. 24 Stakeholders interviewed for this research emphasized that arrests have little impact and that the response is increasingly falling behind. 25

Figure 5 ADSU arrest data from 2000 to 2020, disaggregated by arrests for possession and arrests for dealing.

Source: ADSU

Meea suggested one reason for the limited impact of growing arrests: ‘We only see PWUD being arrested for possession of drugs.’ 26 PWUD similarly argue that the focus of ADSU is on arresting PWUD, not higher-level dealers. 27

These observations are supported by ADSU arrest statistics in Roche Bois, the suburb encompassing Parc Coson: the vast majority of arrests are for possession of heroin, and only 16% for dealing. 28 However, despite ADSU arrest statistics across Mauritius evidencing greater rates of arrests for possession, they also reflect a sizeable and growing proportion of arrests for dealing: 38% of arrests in 2019 and 47% in 2020. 29 ADSU officials state that, particularly since 2019, the unit has been focused on arresting dealers, in part as a strategy to dissuade the youth from entering the drugs market. 30

A move away from arrests on possession charges, which typically involve PWUD, is to be lauded. However, approaches centred on interdiction are doomed to fail, particularly in the context of Mauritius’ drugs markets, which have been highly fragmented since 2015.

The explosion of trade in synthetic cannabinoids since 2015 has fundamentally transformed the structure of the drugs market, which was originally built around profits from heroin trafficking. 31 While heroin trafficking requires connections with overseas suppliers, synthetic cannabinoids and their precursors can be purchased online and imported by mail order, lowering dealers’ barrier to entry. This prompted ‘a democratization of the [drugs] trade’ 32 and a spike of new entrants, attracted by the lucrative profits.

A growing number of PWUD and small-scale dealers became ti patron (Creole for ‘small kingpins’) and formed independent but interconnected networks that grew in parallel to existing networks, expanding the drugs marketplace. 33 In the words of one ADSU official: ‘Everyone can be a kingpin today.’ This undermines the impact of ADSU arrests, as one ‘kingpin’ is quickly replaced by another. 34

Despite COVID‑19 lockdowns and border closures, Mauritius’ drugs market is booming. The dramatic expansion of the drugs marketplace since 2015 materially increased the scale of drugs profits, and shaped the island’s emerging ‘gang culture’.

The government’s response to the drugs market is undermined by endemic corruption, which weakens law enforcement and is reported to penetrate the higher echelons of the state. In addition, the continued focus on interdiction as a core pillar of the state’s response appears to yield few results, similar to the scant success of such strategies elsewhere. A strategy focused on arrests, typically of low- or mid-level players, is flawed. At best arrests have little impact; at worst they do significant harm to PWUD, drawing them into the criminal justice system and minimizing opportunities for licit employment in future.

A pivot in approach and greater recognition of corruption within state infrastructure are required. ADSU’s shift away from arrests for possession should be accelerated and arrests of PWUD avoided. Interventions in the drugs market should seek to offer alternative employment opportunities to vulnerable and marginalized segments of society, who, like the Rodriguan population, are often at heightened risk of recruitment as consumers and dealers. Such interventions are urgently required given the impacts of COVID‑19 on tourism, a key pillar of the island’s economy and a prominent source of employment.

Further, greater resources should be directed to ICAC, not only to bolster follow-the-money approaches but also to encourage investigations into mid- and high-level corruption within state institutions, which underpins the flourishing drugs market.

Telephonic interview with a former drug dealer, Rose-Hill, July 2020; interviews with PWUD across Mauritius between May and September 2020, and in February 2021.  ↩

Interviews with PWUD across Mauritius between May and September 2020, and in February 2021; interview with academics at the University of Mauritius, January 2021, by phone.  ↩

Republic of Mauritius, Ministry of Health and Quality of Life, National Drug Observatory Report, March 2018, https://health.govmu.org/Documents/Main Page/New/NDO_MOH_FINAL_JOSE_VERSION_05July_2018_Brown.pdf .  ↩

Interview with former senior police officer, Mauritius, June 2020; interview with rehabilitation worker, Mauritius, June 2020; interviews with PWUD across Mauritius between May and September 2020, and in February 2021.  ↩

Interview on 7 February 2021, Plaine Verte.  ↩

Interview with PWUD, Upper Plaines Wilhems, June 2020.  ↩

Interviews with PWUD, Port Louis, 13 June 2020.  ↩

Interview 14 March 2021, by phone.  ↩

Interview with Marie, 14 March 2021, by phone; interview with an investigator at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), 4 July 2020; interview with senior prison official, 23 May 2020; interview with rehabilitation worker, 18 June; telephonic interview with PWUD, 13 July 2020.  ↩

Discussions with officials at ADSU, February–March 2021; interviews with PWUD, Parc Coson, February–March 2021.  ↩

When ICAC started identifying expensive cars in their investigations into money laundering linked to drug traffickers, some dealers sold their flashy models and purchased more modest ones. Similarly, while gold or platinum teeth were a key trend, they became less popular (with some dealers actually removing them) after the ICAC reportedly declared that they were suspicious. Moothoosamy’s social media presence shows all the trappings of this flashy lifestyle: gold teeth, heavy gold jewellery, clubbing and liquor.  ↩

This marks a departure from the more discrete operations of dealers a decade ago, some of whom continue to be prominent, particularly in the higher echelons of the wholesale heroin market. This has caused stakeholders to lament an emerging ‘gang culture’ in Mauritius, associated with an aspiration pull among youngsters. ICAC has used these trappings of wealth to their benefit in bringing money laundering charges against dealers such as Gros Quart. Interview with X7, senior prison official, Mauritius, 22 May 2020.  ↩

Moothoosamy was previously arrested in 2019 and 2020, and was on bail awaiting trial at the time of his arrest in 2021. Although Moothoosamy is believed to live in Cité Roche-Bois (the social housing estate of Roche Bois), he was cornered in his bungalow in a wealthier area in Péreybère, a coastal tourist village in the north of Mauritius. Defimedia.info, Opération de l’Adsu à Pereybère: un maçon pris avec Rs 1,1 M, de la drogue et des bijoux, 2 March 2021, https://defimedia.info/operation-de-ladsu-pereybere-un-macon-pris-avec-rs-11-m-de-la-drogue-et-des-bijoux .  ↩

Around ten years ago, many dealers operated in the nearby Karo Kalyptis area. However, with the slums in this area being replaced by social housing, a significant proportion of dealing shifted to Parc Coson. Interview with Marie, social worker in Parc Coson, 14 March 2021, by phone; ION NEWS, 5 October 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC88I52qpvQ .  ↩

Meea is MP for the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM), currently in opposition. For an example of the parliamentary questions raised by Meea, see: Parliamentary Debates, 13 September 2019, https://mauritiusassembly.govmu.org/Documents/Hansard/2019/hansard3019.pdf .  ↩

Interview, 8 February 2021.  ↩

Interview, 14 March 2021, by phone.  ↩

Interview with an ICAC investigator, 4 July 2020.  ↩

The initial investigation was fuelled, in part, by an anonymous letter sent to ICAC in December 2019 regarding payment of protection money by drug traffickers operating in of the neighbouring areas of Karo Kalyptis and Parc Coson.  ↩

Republic of Mauritius, Commission of Inquiry on Drug Trafficking, report, July 2018, http://cut.mu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Commission-of-Enquiry-on-Drug-Trafficking-Report-optimized.pdf .  ↩

The government reported fast-paced implementation of the commission’s recommendations – an official government press release stated that 80 had already been implemented by October 2018. However, interviewed stakeholders unanimously disagreed, stating that nothing has been done. Many interviewees suggested that only two minor recommendations had been implemented by mid 2020, namely the banning of cigarettes, which are used as currency, and postal money orders in prison. Government Information Service, Prime Minister’s Office, Mauritius, Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Drug Trafficking contains some 460 recommendations, says Prime Minister, 17 October 2018, http://www.govmu.org/English/News/Pages/Report-of-the-Commission-of-Inquiry-on-Drug-Trafficking-contains-some-460-recommendations,-says-Prime-Minister.aspx ; Lucia Bird and Julia Stanyard, Changing Tides: The evolving illicit drug trade in the western Indian Ocean, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, forthcoming.  ↩

Arrest figures of ‘consumers and traffickers’ are tracked as an ‘indicator’ across several of the pillars of the strategy for addressing the drug market, Mauritius National Drug Control Master Plan 2019–2023.  ↩

Arrest figures shared by ADSU, and set out in: Republic of Mauritius, National Drug Control Master Plan 2019–2023, https://dha.govmu.org/Lists/DocumentsLinks/Attachments/15/National Drug Control Master Plan_Master_04092019 pdf final.pdf . As of 2019, there were 5 496 persons on the methadone programme, and 47 needle-exchange programme sites. See Mauritius National Observatory Report 2019, https://mroiti.govmu.org/Communique/National drug observatory report 2019 Final.doc 11.pdf .  ↩

The ‘upsurge’ in drugs trafficking was unanimously identified by interviewed stakeholders, and also mentioned in the National Drug Control Master Plan 2019–2023, https://dha.govmu.org/Lists/DocumentsLinks/Attachments/15/NationalDrugControlMasterPlan_Master_04092019pdffinal.pdf .  ↩

Interview with senior prison official, 22 May 2020; interview with academic at University of Mauritius, January 2021, by phone. Lawyers, law enforcement officers, PWUD and rehabilitation workers interviewed between May and September 2020, and in February 2021, repeated these sentiments.  ↩

Interview with Aadil Ameer Meea, opposition MP of Port Louis Maritime & Port Louis East’s Constituency, 8 February 2021.  ↩

Interview with former PWUD, who now works as a social worker Upper Plaines Wilhems, 12 June 2020.  ↩

This is also reflected in ADSU’s 2020 arrest statistics for Plaine Verte, another suburb in Port Louis, and across ADSU arrest data more broadly. It should be noted that arrests do not necessarily result in convictions, which are often more difficult to achieve on dealing charges. Illustratively, in 2019, 92% of convictions for drug offences were for either possession or use, with only 4% relating to dealing or importation. Mauritius National Observatory Report 2019.  ↩

Arrest figures shared by ADSU, and set out in: Republic of Mauritius, National Drug Control Master Plan 2019–2023, https://dha.govmu.org/Lists/DocumentsLinks/Attachments/15/National Drug Control Master Plan_Master_04092019 pdf final.pdf .  ↩

The proportion of arrests for dealing charges has been growing year on year since 2018 (when dealing constituted 33% of arrests). Interview with ADSU officials, 13 April 2021, by phone. Arrest data shared by ADSU.  ↩

Interview with senior counsel, State Law Office, Mauritius, 17 June 2020; interview with senior prison official, 22 May 2020.  ↩

Interview with Jérôme Boulle, former chairman of the Fact-Finding Committee on Drugs and former MP, Mauritius, 19 June 2020; interview with high-ranking ADSU officer, Mauritius, June 2020; interview with senior counsel, State Law Office, 17 June 2020.  ↩

Interview with senior prison official, 23 May 2020.  ↩

Interview with high-ranking ADSU officer, June 2020. By mid 2020, ADSU reported having arrested 20–25 ‘high-level kingpins’. Interview with senior ADSU official, 11 July 2020.  ↩

• Summary highlights
• About this issue
• The impact of COVID-19 on drug supply and price
• Nosy Be: A hotspot for drugs and tourism
• Impacts of the pandemic on PWUD across the islands
• The drug market remains resilient
• Regional trends towards decriminalization
• Cannabis production in Madagascar
• Analabe Ambanja: A centre for cannabis production
• ‘They shoot without warning’
• Corruption has moved up the political agenda
• The Seychelles’ drugs markets are a significant driver of corruption
• The Seychelles’ response to reported corruption
• PWUD report more police harassment
• The taxi industry and its role in South Africa’s assassinations
• Political influence and assassinations
• An eternal dispute
• About Risk Bulletins

A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO COMBAT THE PROBLEM OF ILLICIT DRUG USE IN MAURITIUS

• General Practitioner, MBBS, Mauritius.
• Cite This Article as
• Corresponding Author

Illicit drug use is a multi-facet problem which is affecting around 246 million people world-wide (UNODC, 2015). The use of illicit drugs has increased over the years in the Mauritian population such that it is affecting the population at large, cutting across all age groups and classes, in particular touching the youngsters; at present 40% of youngsters aged between 15 and 25 years are consumers of the synthetic drugs in Mauritius (L?express, 2018). Such a phenomenon will ultimately result in massive dreadful health, social and economic implications. Thus, this paper tries to propose public health measures that can be helpful in curbing the current problem of illicit drug use in the island of Mauritius.

• Illicit Drugs
• Public Health Approach
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[ T. Ibrahim and S. Peerally (2020); A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO COMBAT THE PROBLEM OF ILLICIT DRUG USE IN MAURITIUS Int. J. of Adv. Res. 8 (Jan). 1020-1028] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com

Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/10398       DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/10398

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