Senior Police Officer, Subordinate Jailed For Diverting Smuggled Goods
A senior police officer, Inspector Elias Mawomba (47), and his subordinate, Assistant Inspector Dickson Siakwimbi have been jailed for an effective 15 months for diverting two vehicles from offloading smuggled goods inside the Beitbridge Border Post.
Mawomba and Siakwimbi who were deployed to Beitbridge to conduct security and anti-smuggling duties to the country’s border with South Africa under operation “No to Cross-border Crimes’’ were arrested in July.
The state told the court that the duo was on 18 July assigned to escort two vehicles carrying an assortment of smuggled goods that had been intercepted along the Limpopo River soon after smuggling the goods from South Africa.
The contraband included, 250 boxes of MAQ washing powder and 57 boxes (12 by 400ml) Nivea body lotion creams at Panda Mine security checkpoint some 60km east of Beitbridge town.
The two police officers connived with the drivers to offload part of the contraband in a bushy area near the Zinwa water treatment pump.
Some members of the public spotted them and informed border security officials leading to their arrest soon after offloading 175 boxes of washing powder and 53 others of Nivea body lotion.
Insp Mawomba of the ZRP Support Unit Mike Troops Buchwa was immediately arrested, while Siakwimbi disappeared. It’s not clear how Siakwimbi was eventually arrested.
More: ZTN
