BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA
Police in Beatrice, Mashonaland East province, last week arrested four Mbare men linked to a spate of robberies targeting trucks along the Harare-Beitbridge Highway.
Ngonidzashe Jeke (36), Silent Matambo (25), Liberty Tatenda Mukanganise (27) and Wilson Madanhi (29) are currently in police custody after they were nabbed while travelling in a Toyota Wish stashed with suspected stolen maize.
Provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tendai Mwanza yesterday confirmed the arrests and urged those who might have fallen victim to the robbers to come forward and identity their stolen goods.
The suspects were arrested last Wednesday at the 55km peg along the Harare- Masvingo Highway after being found in possession of suspected stolen maize seed stashed in their Harare-bound getaway car driven by Jeke.
They were then taken to ZRP Beatrice where they were further interrogated until they revealed that they had stolen the seed from a haulage truck which was travelling towards Masvingo.
The accused persons also revealed that on the same day they had stolen 22 cartons of sugar from another truck and delivered the loot to Jeke’s tuckshop in Mbare. Further investigations led to the recovery of 35 cartons and 6x3kgs of sugar, 8x50kg bags of shelled maize, 11 white caps, 18×20 litres empty buckets, a turbo charger for trucks,1x50kg bag of rice, a bed spread comforter and an assortment of perfumes, among other things.
“The criminals were taking advantage of the detour near Beatrice where trucks would reduce speed to safely pass during the night. The criminals would jump onto the trailers of the trucks and cut off tents covering the goods at night and off-load the said goods while the vehicle is in motion. They would then load the loot onto a getaway car before driving back to Harare,” said Mwanza.
