Cocaine smuggler swallows 60 sachets of drug
Patience Nhamburo
A suspected foreign drug dealer who was caught in possession of cocaine worth over ZWL$7 million reportedly swallowed 60 plastic sachets of the drug, as part of her scheme to smuggle the contraband into Zimbabwe.
The suspect, Sheila Khumalo had allegedly excreted 58 sachets of the drug while in police custody after being arrested on arrival at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe international airport on Monday.
According to investigators, two sachets are still in her intestines.
Investigating officer Aaron Muzondo told a Harare court that there is need to monitor the suspect until she excretes the remaining two sachets.
Khumalo was remanded in custody to May 14 and investigators are hoping that by then she would have excreted the two remaining sachets.
The court heard that on May 9, information was received to the effect that Sheila Khumalo was coming to Zimbabwe from Brazil with cocaine aboard an Ethiopian airways flight and was expected to arrive at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe international airport.
Acting on the information, on May 10, a team of detectives from CID drugs and narcotics Harare, operatives from the Central Intelligence Organisation and personnel from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority manned the arrival section at the airport and intercepted the accused person.
A search was conducted on Khumalo’s luggage and on her person, leading to the recovery of 53 small white sachets with whitish powder stashed in a pair of black socks and also in her undergarments.
The seized cocaine has the approximate mass of 975 grams with a total value of ZWL$7 800 000.
Khumalo is allegedly linked to a serious drug syndicate and most of the syndicate members are still at large and yet to be accounted for.
She becomes the fourth foreigner to be arrested for the same crime in a space of about one month.
Last month a 22-year-old man from Brazil was arrested while attempting to smuggle into the country 4,30 kilogrammes of cocaine with a street value of ZWL$32 million dollars.