THREE more suspects believed to have been involved in last week’s robbery case in which a financial services company was raided in Belgravia, Harare, losing over US$720 676, R10 500, e120, a 7.65 mm CZ Vzor pistol and three laptops, appeared in court yesterday.
Shadreck Tendai (42), Phillip Rwodzi (37) and Livingstone
Tunha (53), who are all employees of Quest Financial Services, appeared before
Harare magistrate Mrs Apollonia Marutya.
The State applied for a warrant of further detention which
the magistrate granted.
They are expected to appear in court tomorrow together with
six of their suspected accomplices.
The other six suspects are Washington Mangwanda (21),
Brighton Chikuwa (27), Silence Matambo (27), Liberty Mukangaise (31), Richard
Marondera (25) and Luke Zinyengere (28), who initially appeared before Harare
magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei.
The State also applied for a warrant of further detention
to allow police to continue holding the six suspects for another 48 hours of
investigations. Police said they needed to recover all the property that was
bought using proceeds of the crime.
Defence lawyer Mr Tawanda Takaendesa did not oppose the
application, but the period of detention for the six.
He suggested that an additional 24 hours was enough for
interviews by police, and opposed the submissions by the State for making
indications.
The allegations against the gang are that on Friday last
week they went to rob Lancelot Tashayawedu at his offices at 6 Rochester Road
in Belgravia armed with a revolver, an unidentified blank pistol, a drill, an
iron bar, a bolt cutter and explosives.
The gang was driving in four separate vehicles: a blue
Honda Fit, silver Honda Fit, black Mercedes Benz and a black Toyota Wish.
Upon arrival, they approached Mr Tashayawedu in his bedroom
and tied his hands and legs with an electric cable, leaving him under guard by
one of the alleged robbers while the others smashed the window pane of one of
the office buildings to gain entry into the office.
The gang allegedly ransacked several offices at the
building including the server room, the managing director’s office, the
operations manager’s office and the board room. It is the State’s case that the
suspected robbers blasted open the strong room and the safes with explosives
and stole cash amounting to US$716 340-00, R10 000, e120, and PABX telephone
machine and a 7.65mm CZ Vzor pistol serial numbers 20273.
Their plan was disturbed by the arrival of the Safe Guard
reaction team who parked their vehicle at the front of the offices. The robbers
fled from the scene leaving a grinder, fuse cables and a bag with two laptops.
The gang also dropped cash amounting to US$5 000 on their way out by breaking
precast panels at the back of the premises.
In a statement this week, national police spokesperson
Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said detectives from CID Homicide, Harare
received information which linked Brighton Chikukwa to the offence. The
detectives tracked the suspect to Mbare, Harare where he was arrested and he
allegedly implicated the other suspects and Zacharia Charuwanda Allias Zero,
Trymore Chimbambo, Maxwell Kadzembe as well as three employees at Quest
Financial Services.
Police allege Chikukwa received US$40 000 cash as part of
his share from the loot. The detectives recovered US$ 25 000 cash and a Ford
Ranger D4D vehicle, registration number AGC 6541, which he had allegedly bought
for US$ 14,000. Silence Matambo and Washington Mangwanda were later arrested in
Mbare after being lured by Chikukwa.
The detectives recovered US$22 000 cash which was allegedly
given to Matambo and Mangwanda as part of their share of the loot.
Police allege Mangwanda was given US$25 000 as part of his
share which he used to buy a Toyota Aqua vehicle for US$5 300 and gave his
mother US$ 10 000 and another US$ 5 000 to his wife for personal use.
Detectives acted on received information and arrested
Liberty Mukanganise at Boka Tobacco Auction Floors in Waterfalls.
Investigations by the detectives revealed that he was allegedly given US$ 23
000 cash as part of his share of the loot. He led the detectives to the
recovery of US$20 560 cash, a car radio, a sub-woofer, seat covers valued at
US$55, four size 15 tyres valued at US$240, car shields valued at US$35 and mag
wheels valued at US$400.
Tafadzwa Richard Marondera and Luke Zinyengere were later
arrested in Glen View and led the detectives to the recovery of US$50 600 cash.
It was established that Marondera was given US$35 000 as part of his share
while Zinyengere was given US$25 000.
The detectives recovered a Mark X vehicle, registration
number AFR 7059, which Zinyengere had allegedly bought for US$1 100, an iPhone
14 Pro Max bought for US$ 1 300, and an iPhone 15 Pro Max bought for US$1 500.
“The Zimbabwe Republic Police applauds the public for
supplying positive information which has assisted the police to account for
armed robbery suspects throughout the country. The police reiterates that
company executives must ensure that information on institutions’ financial
transactions, security and movements is not shared with every employee.
It is now clear that most high-profile robbery cases have
an element of inside information. The public is urged to continue forwarding
information regarding criminal activities to the National Complaints Desk
number (0242) 703631 or WhatsApp 0712 800 197 or contact any nearest Police
Station,” Assistant Comm Nyathi said. Herald
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