A 32-YEAR-OLD suspected drug mule’s bail application failed yesterday after she was remanded in custody on allegations that she tried to smuggle 3,8kg of cocaine into the country from Brazil.
BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
Beauty Mutashu was not asked to plead when she appeared before provincial magistrate Barbara Chimboza facing a charge of dealing in dangerous drugs and was remanded in custody to Friday.
Mutashu, who confessed to being a sex worker, said she was not the owner of the consignment, as she had just been sent to Brazil to collect a bag by a woman only identified as Mildred.
“I did not know that I was carrying cocaine, I just thought I was carrying Mildred’s clothes, as she is the one who sent me to collect her luggage in Brazil and everything was sealed. I could not open to see what was inside,” she said.
“I am appealing to the court to grant me bail because I have a child who is sitting for her Ordinary Level examinations this year and another in Grade Seven. I fear that if I am not given the opportunity to support them, they will end up being prostitutes like me.”
However, prosecutor Sebastian Mutizirwa opposed bail, saying Mutashu was a flight risk as she was of no fixed abode.
Mutizirwa told the court that Mutashu had also frustrated investigations by giving the investigating officer in the matter different addresses.
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He further said if convicted, Mutashu was likely to receive the mandatory sentence of up to 15 years’ imprisonment.
It is the State’s case that last Friday, detectives from CID drugs and narcotics, stationed at Harare International Airport, received information that Mutashu was coming from Brazil abode a United Arab Emirates aircraft and that she was carrying the illicit drug.
Upon arrival at the airport, Mutashu is said to have approached the immigration hall for clearance, where she tendered her passport and the immigration officer immediately identified her and called in the police detectives to monitor her.
The State alleges Mutashu had two bags which were then searched and she was found with 11 new shirts and in each shirt was a silver rectangle-wrapped aluminium foil containing cocaine.
She was subsequently arrested and cocaine weighing 3,8kg and worth $304 000 was recovered.
