Suspected pushers denied bail for trying to steal corpse stashed with heroin

 

Tanzanian national Mlawa Jumanne Ndumbogane (33) of number 119 Scedia Street in Pretoria, South Africa, and Mufungo Ngara (39) of Msiwa Village under Chief Mberengwa, reportedly tried to steal the body of Tanzanian Ally Omari Mpili.

Mpili reportedly died with 1,4kg of heroin in his stomach while in transit to South Africa on 19 October.
Ndumbogane and Ngara were not formally charged for unlawfully dealing in dangerous drugs when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Olivia Mariga.

Mrs Mariga denied the pair bail and remanded them in custody to 2 November.
Prosecutor Mr Tungamirai Chakurira told the court that Ndumbogane is unemployed and resides in South Africa while Ngara is self-employed as an unregistered transporter in the same country.

It is alleged that on 19 October, the suspected drug mule Mpili arrived at Road-port bus terminus in Harare from Tanzania, but failed to proceed to South Africa, his intended destination on the same day.
Mpili, it is alleged, sought accommodation and slept in Braeside, Harare, where he died on the same night. The following day, the court heard, detectives got information that Mpili had swallowed drugs prior to his departure from Tanzania.

Mr Chakurira alleged that the drugs, which burst in his stomach, could have caused Mpili’s death.
Police officers from Braeside Police Station took Mpili’s body to a city funeral parlour for safekeeping while awaiting postmortem to determine the cause of death.

Mr Chakurira said on 24 October, Ndumbogane and Ngara proceeded to the funeral parlour where they claimed Mpili’s body. The pair was arrested before taking the body after police were tipped off that the two were claiming the body left by the police.

A postmortem done on 25 October at Parirenyatwa Hospital by a Government pathologist led to the recovery of creamish ampoules in the deceased’s intestines, the court heard.

The ampoules tested positive for heroin.

Mr Chakurira said the pair had full knowledge of the drugs and had no right to attempt transporting dangerous drugs to South Africa through Zimbabwe.