Police seize one tonne of dagga in one week

**Tumai “Abas Amidu” Matsika and Reuben Mhlanga with their 750kg dagga haul**

Mike Mashiri - Court Correspondent

In just seven days, Zimbabwean police seized more than a tonne of dagga in coordinated operations stretching from Plumtree to Marondera, Kadoma to Harare.

The haul — worth over US$100,000 on the street was captured between September 30 and October 7, police recorded at least 10 separate dagga-related arrests, ranging from rural growers to highway traffickers and bus couriers.

750 kg: intercepted along the Kwekwe–Kadoma Highway, hidden in a Honda Shuttle driven by two soccer players, Tumai “Abas Amidu” Matsika and Reuben Mhlanga.
60 kg: seized at the Trabablas Interchange from Prosper Mphofu, who received the parcel from another vehicle.
35.49 kg: collected from a Malawi-bound bus by Tinashe Tapera. Tapera has since appeared in court and been remanded in custody pending continuance.
83 plants: uprooted in Macheke, each about 30cm tall.
86 sachets: found in a suitcase carried by a 54-year-old woman on a Harare-bound bus.
Hundreds of sachets plus bottles of Broncleer and Benlyn seized in Marondera.

In the same period police supervised the incineration of 83.9 kg of dagga, alongside 174 grams of crystal meth and 75 kg of skin-lightening creams at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital confirming dagga’s dominance by volume and prevalence.