Police in Zimbabwe have intercepted a Malawi-registered truck carrying about 3 700kg of marijuana, The Herald of Zimbabwe reported on Wednesday.
The driver of the truck, according to the report, was arrested on the spot, but his accomplices, who were travelling in two different vehicles with Zimbabwe registration numbers, escaped.
Harare Provincial Police spokesperson Inspector Tadius Chibanda told The Herald that 41 bags of marijuana weighing about 90 kilogrammes each were recovered after a search of the Fuso truck that was parked on unidentified premises Tuesday morning.
The Zimbabwe Police said some officers who were on patrol became suspicious and followed the vehicles from a distance until they parked on the premises.
The paper reported: “The officers confronted the suspects resulting in all of them speeding off from the premises, leaving the driver of the truck. Some of them jumped over security walls.
“Police found the suspects offloading the bags and it is believed that they wanted to transport them using the commuter minibus and the taxi.
“The driver was arrested and further investigations revealed that the marijuana was smuggled into the country through the Nyamapanda Border Post.”
It is believed that they duped the officials into believing that they were delivering Hessian bags used for tobacco packaging.
The marijuana was stashed under the bags and the truck was also destined for South Africa.
Malawi National Police spokesperson Rhoda Manjolo said they have not received any report about the Zimbabwean incident.
This is not the first time a truck carrying marijuana has been intercepted in Zimbabwe.
In November last year, police in Mashonaland East intercepted a Harare-bound Malawi-registered bus at Nyamapanda Border Post and impounded 250 kilogrammes of marijuana.
