Police recover US$20 000 cigarettes contraband

traffic lucrative for smugglers. Police arrested Ndou Manstha Gilbert (34), a South African, Muleya Laf Hassani (31) and Christopher Sithole and impounded a South African truck in which the 140 boxes of cigarettes were hidden. The trailer of the truck had fake Zimbabwean number plates. Police spokesperson Superintendent Andrew Phiri confirmed the arrest of the trio.
“Detectives received information that a truck belonging to Cudlux Transport Menlopark, Pretoria was loaded with cigarettes that were intended to be smuggled,” he said. “The truck arrived at the Beitbridge border post at 6am and the detectives kept a constant surveillance on it.”
Supt Phiri said the driver of the truck and the clearing agent for the transporter started completing customs formalities while the detectives remained on guard.
After they were done police approached them and asked for the cleared papers and they noted that the customs road manifest indicated that the truck had no load. “When the truck was taken to the scanning machine, a container with a false compartment loaded with boxes of cigarettes was discovered,” he said.