Tanzania police seize and destroy 26 tons of marijuana on Mount Meru
Police in Tanzania's Arusha region seized 269 bags of marijuana, weighing 26 tons, in a month-long crackdown across Arumeru district on the slopes of Mount Meru. The haul, described as the country's biggest cannabis seizure in recent years, was destroyed at the Muriet dumpsite near Arusha; no arrests were reported.
🇹🇿 Slopes of Mount Meru, Arumeru district, Arusha region · Tanzania
Police in Tanzania’s northern Arusha region seized 269 bags of marijuana weighing 26 tons in a crackdown across Arumeru district, a notorious marijuana-farming area on the slopes of Mount Meru.[1]Arusha regional police commander Charles Mkumbo said the haul was the result of a one-month crackdown in the region, after police mapped the area’s known marijuana-producing zones.[1]
Mkumbo called it the biggest seizure of the drug in recent years in the country, and said the bags were destroyed at the Muriet dumpsite a few kilometres from Arusha city centre.[1][2]Most of the bags had been left unattended by farmers and dealers, some of whom ran away as police moved in, and no suspects were named.[1]
Arusha is one of Tanzania’s key marijuana-producing regions, alongside Morogoro, Iringa, Tabora, Mara, Rukwa, Ruvuma and Tanga, with much of the crop sold in major cities and smuggled to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Sudan.[1]
Case data
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Tanzania's Drug Control and Enforcement Authority announced on 29 September 2026 that July–September operations across 14 regions seized 18,078 kg of drugs including 11,504.76 kg of cannabis and 44.45 kg of skunk, arresting 289 suspects. Morogoro and Tabora accounted for most of the cannabis; vehicles used by traffickers were impounded.
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 Control and Enforcement Authority seized 1,815 kg of high-THC cannabis known as skanka in the Mbezi and Magomeni areas of Dar es Salaam between late August and 2 September 2024. Five suspects were arrested, including a businessman described as a key distributor who brought the drug in from abroad hidden among other goods.
Police in Arusha seized 9,102 kg of cannabis in 267 bags from gorges and homes around Olkokora village on the slopes of Mount Meru, and burned a two-acre bhang farm. No arrests were reported when the seizure was announced on 30 October 2014.