2 ARRESTED FOR E133 000 COCAINE IN JOINT OPERATION

MBABANE – A joint operation by the police and their counterpart organisations led to two arrests of individuals for being found in possession of cocaine worth  E133 000.

Assistant Superintendent Khulani Mamba, Police Deputy Public Relations Officer, said the police were in a joint operation dubbed USALAMA 1 with Eastern African Police Chiefs Corporation Organisation (EAPCCO) and the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Organisation (SARPCO).

“We were in a joint operation with the two organisations and one of the results in the four regions was the arrest of two suspects. A female and a male of Manzini were arrested for possession of cocaine weighing 0.532 grammes with a street value of E133 000 and their case is still pending in court,” Mamba said.

He said the joint operation resulted in the destruction of 277.48kg of dagga from 23 different suspects with a street value of E221 313 as well as dagga fields worth E10.1 million were destroyed.

“We recovered two 9mm pistols with 20 live rounds of ammunition seized in Manzini and Nhlangano. During the operation, we also recovered 40 live rounds of ammunitions suspected to be of an AK 47 and nine rounds of a 12 bore shot gun,” Assistant Superintendent Mamba said.
USALAMA 1 also led to the arrest of 62 illegal immigrants of Mozambique and Asian origin; and most were convicted in different courts and are now awaiting deportation to their various countries of origin.

The police deputy mouthpiece also revealed that 19 motor vehicles were seized for evading custom taxes and are currently kept at the Matsapha warehouse; while three suspects were arrested for theft of two motor vehicles.

“There were also nine suspects arrested for illegal poaching. All these suspects were found in possession of animal parts including a bush buck skin, two python skins, a hyena skin, eagle’s wings, porcupine skin, an owl, rock rabbit head, slender mongoose bones and a bush buck horn. We suspect they hunted these animals for consumption and medical purposes,” he said.

Mamba further stated that the operation was a success as a most wanted suspect for a murder case was arrested. He said during the arrest, the suspect was found in possession of a vector 9mm pistol loaded with six live rounds of ammunition without a valid licence or permit.

 He further said USALAMA 1 was aimed at gathering operational intelligence on human traffickers, drug traffickers, motor vehicle theft syndicates, wildlife crime perpetrators, stock theft and smugglers of minerals, syndicates involved in copper theft, illicit small arms and light weight weapons proliferators.

“In this operation we also involved local law enforcement agencies such as the Immigration department, Swaziland Revenue Authority, Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, Big Game Parks and the Swaziland National Trust Commission in all the four regions,” he said.

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