Mbanje worth more than $2 million went up in smoke in Harare yesterday at the Parirenyatwa Hospital incinerator when the ZRP Drugs and Narcotics Squad torched over 400 kg of the drug seized from traffickers since last year.
The drugs
weighed a total 463 230 kg with a street value of $2 116 150. According to the
officer commanding CID Drugs and Narcotics Squad, Superintendent Moffat
Gumende, it was seized from 398 suspects mainly from around the Greater Harare
area although sources of origin were Eastern Highlands, Malawi and Mozambique.
Among the
consignment were 14 compressed blocks of mbanje bound in polythene plastic,
each weighing an average 10 kg, which narcotic detectives seized at the Harare
International Airport from suspects who claimed the drugs were being shipped
from Nigeria to South Africa.
Another
consignment was an eight-bag lot seized in the Chidodo area of Muzarabani. Each
bag weighed an average20 to 23kg. Twelve more bags of mbanje weighing a total
of about 200 kg, seized from the Eastern Highlands, were among the bonfire.
The detectives
also threw into the incinerator a suitcaseful of pain killing and antibiotic
drugs which they seized from a woman who was selling them in the streets of
Harare. These included Asafen, pynstop, Amoxycillin, Franol, Migril, Colcaps,
Amisol and Penicillin.
Supt Gumende
said that although Zimbabwe was still predominantly a conduit for drugs on
transit to South Africa, Botswana and Europe and the Americas, it was
increasingly becoming a consuming market itself. Herald
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