Blitz nets 4 000 rustlers

crossing points between the two countries.
According to statistics from the police, all the cases were recorded between January and July this year.
Of the 3 934 suspects, 694 were arrested for stocktheft while 3 240 were picked for stock theft-related cases.
Police closed 460 butcheries, eight abattoirs and 237 food outlets countrywide for selling stolen and meat that had not been inspected.
Police National Co-ordinator for Anti-Stock Theft Assistant Commissioner Bernard Dumbura, yesterday said 12 cases involving smuggling cattle across the border were recorded during the period.
“Of the 148 cattle stolen, we recovered 85 of them and efforts are still under way to recover the remainder,” he said.
Asst Commissioner Dumbura said police intercepted some of the suspects while some were arrested through patrols and the help of their Mozambican counterparts.
He said Masvingo Province had the highest number of stocktheft cases in which the cattle were smuggled to Mozambique through illegal exit points.
He said police had since deployed details to patrol along the border to curb these crimes. Asst Comm Dumbura said they would conduct a joint operation with their Mozambican counterparts.
“We would also want to recover some of the cattle which were stolen in the country and that is why we want to conduct this joint operation,” he said.
Asst Comm Dumbura said cases of stocktheft had, however, declined by 20 percent compared to the same period last year. Police recorded 3 240 cases as compared to 2 589 this year while 6 659 cattle were stolen in 2011 compared to 5 808 the previous year.
“From the cattle stolen in 2011, we managed to recover 2 140 and 2 278 this year,” Asst Comm Dumbura said.
He said police would continue with the crime awareness campaigns educating people especially farmers on the need to brand their cattle and putting adequate measures to ensure security of their livestock.
Asst Comm Dumbura said police launched the cattle branding exercise in March last year to assist farmers of which 197 000 of them had obtained branding certificates.
Between June 18 and 24, Police Anti-Stock Theft Unit conducted an operation code-named “Nyamayabvepi Number 7” aimed at checking abattoirs, butcheries and food outlets, among others countrywide.
Police checked for uninspected meat, stock registers, illegal meat vendors, movement of livestock and carcasses.
During the operation, they also caused the closure of 110 restaurants and seven abattoirs while three carcasses and 208kg of fish were also recovered.