Zim tobacco smuggling syndicate busted

Five men were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning at Tlokweng border gate, on suspicions of smuggling tobacco into South Africa from Zimbabwe through Botswana.

The men, alleged to be part of a criminal syndicate that smuggles illegal drugs and other substances were found with more than 2,000 canteens of cigarettes. Three of the men namely Brian Chazvonga aged 27, Augustine Rodwell Mukobvu aged 53 and Augustine Chihuje aged 33 are from Zimbabwe, while two of them namely Stephen Gwena aged 50 and Mukombiwa Lloyd aged 38 are from Mozambique.

They were arrested after police received a tip off that their bus was seen travelling from Harare, Zimbabwe to South Africa with no passengers onboard. The police then tightened surveillance on the A1 and the road that leads to the Tlokweng border. The surveillance operation is reported to have started from 12 midnight, as intelligence officers tried to locate the bus.

The police followed the bus from around 5.00am, from Gaborone bus rank to the border where they stopped the bus and searched it. One other man is suspected to have escaped while the police were still questioning the five suspects in police custody.

According to the head of Criminal Investigation Department at Number 3 police district, Detective Superintendent Sergeant Marapo they have been searching for the bus for the past few months.

"We are going to investigate the five men together with the owner of the bus through Interpol. Meanwhile we will hand the five men and their bus to Botswana Unified Revenue, for them to be charged with smuggling goods into Botswana," said Marapo.

He further told Mmegi that some of the men were arrested two weeks ago, for harboring suspected criminals and illegal immigrants using the same bus and another, that was not part of yesterday's arrest.

Marapo also told Mmegi that on their permits, the five suspects registered that they were using a small car, while they were using a bus.

The tobacco was hidden in a designed frame in the luggage area, in the ceiling of the bus. All the five suspects denied knowledge of the tobacco. Mmegi interviewed drivers of the bus who claimed to be in the dark about the tobacco. The driver who was driving the bus from Harare to Francistown, Chihuje said he did not check the bus when he left Zimbabwe. While Gwena, who was arrested in the same bus two weeks ago, defiantly claimed he knew nothing about the tobacco. 

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