A 38-year-old Harare woman, Patricia Munyengeri, was yesterday slapped with a 4-year jail term after being found guilty of possessing 271kg of mbanje with a street value of almost $300 000.
Harare magistrate Mrs Feresi Chakanuka presided over the case.
“From the testimonies from the four witnesses, the State has managed to prove a case against the accused,” she ruled.
She stated that during the trial, police officers indicated that Munyengeri was dealing in drugs as they had been monitoring her movements for some time.
“The court has no reason to doubt the evidence of the first and the second witness who gave testimony that she was a tenant at the house where the drugs were recovered,” said Mrs Chakanuka.
On December 31 last year, a team of detectives received information that Munyengeri had received her contraband from Malawi and had stored it in a safe house.
Police raided the house and the owner’s wife was interviewed and mentioned that Munyengeri was renting a room at the house, but not living there.
The owner’s wife gave the police a spare key to Munyengeri’s room and 13 bags of loose mbanje were recovered and seized.
As the detectives were still carrying out their investigations, the owner of the house arrived and offered to assist the detectives locate Munyengeri.
He led the team to her brother in Msasa Park, Harare, who in turn led the team to where Munyengeri was living.
The seized drugs were weighed at National Railways of Zimbabwe and the 271kg had an approximate street value of $299 000 at that time.