Online Reporter
Thupeyo Muleya
A 52-YEAR-OLD Zimbabwean man’s dodgy tobacco hustle has gone up in smoke after he was slapped with a R1.5 million fine or five years behind bars, for smuggling a stash of illicit cigarettes into South Africa.
Desperate Chinomona’s get-rich-quick mission hit a brick wall in April when customs officials at the Beitbridge border post sniffed out his cunning cargo scam.
The trucker was caught red-handed ferrying 343 boxes and 82 bricks of Remington Gold cigarettes worth R11.6 million using secret compartments in a Volvo truck hauling two trailers. His hot cargo was hidden not-so-well that even the containers had unequal lengths inside and out, a dead giveaway to alert inspectors.
“When SARS officials got suspicious, they called in backup. The compartments were ripped open and boom — a mountain of illegal smokes was uncovered,” said Limpopo Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Lethunya Mmuroa.
The case, which started at the Musina Magistrates’ Court on April 14, ended in a dramatic verdict at the Giyani Specialised Commercial Crime Court. Chinomona was convicted and sentenced, and his fancy truck, along with the trailers and cargo, was handed over to the State.
In a double blow, he was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
The smuggling of cigarettes has become big business between Zimbabwe and South Africa, with border authorities waging a cat-and-mouse war against crafty contraband cartels.
But for Chinomona, it’s a costly lesson that crime doesn’t pay, especially when the smoke clears.
Watch this space — more border busts are coming!
