14 hectares of cannabis destroyed in Arusha operation
Tanzanian authorities destroyed 14 hectares of cannabis in Arusha region in February 2018, including eight hectares laid waste at the Meru forest reserve on 10 February in an operation overseen by Interior Minister Mwigulu Nchemba. No arrests were reported.
🇹🇿 Meru forest reserve, Arumeru district, Arusha · Tanzania
Tanzanian authorities destroyed 14 hectares of cannabis in the northern Arusha
region over several days in February 2018.[1][2]Eight hectares were laid
waste at the Meru forest reserve on Saturday 10 February, after another six
acres were destroyed earlier in the week, in an operation overseen by Interior
Minister Mwigulu Nchemba.[1][2]Tanzania is one of the world’s largest
cannabis producers.[1]
Arumeru administrative secretary Timotheo Mzava said during Saturday’s
operation that the authorities had decided to put a stop to the cannabis
culture.[1]The minister vowed the operation would run in every corner of
the country, with everyone implicated arrested and every vehicle carrying even
the smallest quantity of cannabis seized by the state.[1]
Arusha is a key cannabis-producing area, and much of its crop is hidden in
large stretches of natural forest.[1]Africa Feeds attributes its account to
the AFP wire, and the Daily New Nation roundup carries the same AFP dispatch
from Nairobi.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
No arrests or seizures of vehicles were reported from the operation itself, though the minister vowed both.
No weight, plant count, value or court outcome was published for the destroyed crop.
The wire mixes units, reporting eight hectares on Saturday after six acres earlier in the week within a 14-hectare total; the report uses the stated total.
Tanzania's Drug Control and Enforcement Authority reported destroying 603 acres of cannabis farms in four Mvomero district villages, seizing 49 bags of processed cannabis and arresting 13 suspects. Authorities also dismantled 21 temporary camps used by growers.
Tanzania's drug authority said that by 3 August 2026 a 16-day operation in Kilwa district had destroyed 3,117.9 acres of cannabis in Kandawale and Kipatimo wards and arrested 12 suspects. Between 200 and 250 residents joined the clearing each day.
Geita district security officials and Tanzania Forest Services destroyed a 3.5-acre cannabis plot interplanted with maize in the Rwamgasa tree plantation reserve. The reports say one suspect was detained and referred to legal authorities.
Tanzania's Court of Appeal upheld Hamis Muhibu Abdallah's thirty-year sentence for cultivating cannabis after police found 535 plants on a farm. It quashed a separate possession conviction because the uprooted plants proved cultivation, not the additional possession offence charged. His confession, though retracted, was supported by other evidence linking him to the field, so the…
