Online Reporter
Yeukai Karengezeka
Court Correspondent
THE State has concluded its case against two Britons arrested in May for allegedly attempting to smuggle 66,9kg of dagga through the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare.
Tihaise Darlin Elisha (18) and Taylor Tamara Simone (20), both from Birmingham, United Kingdom, deny charges of unlawful possession of dangerous drugs, claiming they were unwitting couriers.
The pair allege they were misled into believing the luggage contained electrical gadgets, including laptops, gaming devices and monitors, which they were tasked to deliver to a recipient in Zimbabwe.
The trial commenced earlier this week, with the State presenting three witnesses.
Two police officers, Detective Constable Abigail Chingwaru and Detective Sergeant Sithabiso Ncube, testified that they arrested the pair at RGM International Airport after discovering the contraband.
Yesterday, the final State witness, Brenda Taodzera, a revenue officer with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), took the stand.
Ms Taodzera, who is attached to Shift 4 under the supervision of Micah Mandava, narrated the events of May 1, 2025, when the accused arrived on Ethiopian Airways Flight ET 873.
On the day in question, at around 2:30pm, Elisha and Simone proceeded through the green route and were in possession of four suitcases.
A ZIMRA image analyst flagged a white suitcase with a red tag for physical examination.
“In liaison with CID Drugs and Narcotics detectives, I, along with graduate trainee Rodney Mukarati, escorted the travellers to the search bay,” said Ms Taodzera.
During the search, the white suitcase bearing an Ethiopian Airways tag with Elisha’s name yielded 25 packets of compressed dagga.
This prompted further searches of the remaining suitcases. In total, 124 packets of compressed dagga were recovered, weighing 66,9kg.
Presiding magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa will deliver her ruling on the application for discharge on July 18.
