Online Reporter
B-Metro Reporter
A SUSPECTED drug mule died in dramatic fashion after swallowing a stash of Broncleer cough syrup in a desperate attempt to evade arrest during a police sting in Manyame Park.
According to national police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi, detectives from the CID Drugs and Narcotics unit had on 19 June received a tip-off and swooped on 55-year-old Josephine Tinarwo’s residence, where a major drug haul was uncovered.
Under pressure, Tinarwo spilled the beans and implicated her supplier, Hezel Titya (39), who was immediately lured to the house in a calculated police operation. However, what followed shocked even the experienced detectives.
“As police moved in to effect the arrest, the suspect swallowed some of the drugs she had brought to deliver,” Comm Nyathi’s statement reads.
The gulped concoction, believed to be highly toxic, quickly took its toll. Officers rushed Titya to Chitungwiza Hospital, but the damage was done.
“She passed on upon admission,” said Comm Nyathi.
The incident has echoes of other high-profile cases both locally and globally. In 2019, a Zimbabwean woman was caught at the Robert Mugabe International Airport after bursting drug pellets she had swallowed. Internationally, South African model Michaella McCollum and accomplice Melissa Reid — known as the “Peru Two,” were infamously jailed for smuggling cocaine in their stomachs in 2013. In another case, Nigerian actor Uche Odoputa served jail time after being caught at an airport with hard drugs in his gut.
Back home, the war on drugs is heating up.
In the same 19 June crackdown, police also arrested five more suspects in various locations including Mbare and Redwing Mine in Penhalonga. Grace Tagara (41), Betha Paakanengwa (31), Tadiwanashe Mandisodza (21), Patience Sithole, and Rumbidzai Hlabiso (32) were busted for unlawful possession of dagga, illegal pills known as Aliviador, and selling beer without a liquor licence.
Aliviador Pills are prescription painkillers often abused for their sedative and intoxicating effects. They usually contain a muscle relaxant like carisoprodol, sometimes mixed with codeine. Sold illegally without prescription, they cause drowsiness and euphoria, but in high doses can lead to slowed breathing, overdose, and death. They’re highly addictive and especially dangerous when combined with alcohol.
Comm Paul Nyathi commended the public for its role in exposing drug networks.
“We applaud members of the public for supplying information. The ZRP urges the nation to continue forwarding leads about drug barons and suppliers,” he said.
The fight, however, is far from over. The streets are still flooded with substances like Broncleer, crystal meth, and unregulated pills. But as Titya’s tragic end shows, the high stakes in the drug underworld are now matched by intensified police resolve.
“Help us flush them out,” said Comm Nyathi. “The battle needs all hands on deck.”
Anyone with information is urged to call the ZRP National Complaints Desk on (0242) 703631 or WhatsApp 0712 800 197.
The streets are watching, and so is the law.
