Lithium heist busted. ZACC and ZIMRA smashed a smuggling ring trying to ship ore to China through the Forbes Border Post. Tsitsi Manyumwa got arrested for leading the charge with fake permits and cloned documents.
The crew used six trucks in mid-May. Drivers claimed containers were empty, but ZIMRA spotted the lie at the border. Two rigs got seized immediately after drivers confessed under pressure. The rest scattered back to Harare to hide the evidence.
Investigators found a Mozambican transit form pointing to Beira. They recovered two more containers in June and grabbed another truck in Goromonzi. The syndicate cloned an expired Bikita Minerals permit to move over two hundred tonnes of petalite concentrate.
Only thirty-four tonnes actually left the country. The stolen cargo values around one hundred thousand dollars. Manyumwa faces charges under the Criminal Law Act and base mineral export controls. She posted a one-thousand-dollar bail and returns to court in July.
Accomplices Simbarashe Shaza and Li Dewen remain on the run. Shaza allegedly handed over fraudulent export papers that let one driver escape. Authorities continue hunting the foreign national and local clearing agent involved in this coordinated theft scheme.
The crew used six trucks in mid-May. Drivers claimed containers were empty, but ZIMRA spotted the lie at the border. Two rigs got seized immediately after drivers confessed under pressure. The rest scattered back to Harare to hide the evidence.
Investigators found a Mozambican transit form pointing to Beira. They recovered two more containers in June and grabbed another truck in Goromonzi. The syndicate cloned an expired Bikita Minerals permit to move over two hundred tonnes of petalite concentrate.
Only thirty-four tonnes actually left the country. The stolen cargo values around one hundred thousand dollars. Manyumwa faces charges under the Criminal Law Act and base mineral export controls. She posted a one-thousand-dollar bail and returns to court in July.
Accomplices Simbarashe Shaza and Li Dewen remain on the run. Shaza allegedly handed over fraudulent export papers that let one driver escape. Authorities continue hunting the foreign national and local clearing agent involved in this coordinated theft scheme.
