Online Reporter
Yeukai Karengezeka
Court Correspondent
HARARE regional magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa yesterday convicted two Britons arrested in May this year for allegedly attempting to smuggle 66,9kg of dagga through the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport (RGMI).
Tihaise Darlin Elisha (18) and Taylor Tamara Simone, both from Birmingham, UK, were convicted of unlawful possession of dangerous drugs after a full trial and will be sentenced to tomorrow.
In her judgment, Mrs Gofa said the accused had no plausible defence and their alibi that they thought their luggage contained electrical gadgets, including laptops, gaming devices and monitors, which they were tasked to deliver to a recipient in Zimbabwe, who is unknown, could not hold water.
According to the State, Zimra officials and CID Drugs and Narcotics detectives, conducted a search on the accused’s goods and 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.
A red suitcase, also bearing Elisha’s name, contained 32 packets of compressed dagga.
A brown suitcase, labelled with Simone’s name, had 32 packets of dagga. A grey suitcase, also belonging to Simone, contained 35 packets of dagga.
In total, 124 packets of compressed dagga were recovered, amounting to 66,9kg.
The two suspects were immediately arrested and handed over to the police for further investigations.
