Tanzanian ambulance driver arrested for transporting khat

The mild narcotic is popular in many parts of Africa. Africa

A Tanzanian ambulance driver was arrested after he appeared that he was carrying a heavy load of leafy narcotic khat, with his sirens lamenting, instead of a passenger sick, an official said Friday.

Khat is a red-leaved, green-leaved plant that has a slight amphetamine- like effect when chewed.

In many parts of East Africa chewing khat is a social hobby often abused but legal. Tanzania is one of the few nations in the region in which it is banned.

"This ambulance was intercepted (Wednesday) with her screaming siren as if she was carrying a very sick person, while in reality she weighed 800 kg," an AFP official told AFP. local government of the city of Tarime, in the north-west, under the guise of anonymity.

He clarified that the driver had been forced to transport a patient.It is the police car that sent the patient who spotted the same ambulance and arrested him.

Police commander Juma Ndaki told Mwananchi newspaper that the khat came from neighboring Kenya, where its use and sale