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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau

SECURITY agents at Beitbridge on Thursday intercepted a South African truck that was being used to smuggle a contraband of 50 boxes of Remington Gold cigarettes worth thousands of dollars.

The cigarettes were hidden in a consignment of copper cat-hood that was being transported from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to South Africa when it was busted at around 2am.

Security sources at the border said the South African registered-horse JF50RVB-GP towing a trailer CJ83WD-GP was being driven by Valentine Chitauro of Kuwadzana in Harare who is now assisting the police with investigations.

“The cigarettes were intercepted during routine searches concealed in a copper cat-hood load that was being transported from DRC to South Africa. The consignment owner had only declared copper cat-hood on customs documents,” said a border security official.

“The truck and the 50 boxes of cigarettes have been seized under notice of seizure 049720L pending further investigations into the matter. We are tightening security to curb all leakages through this border”.

Of late the security team has been cracking down on smuggling syndicates which has seen at least five Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) officials being arrested for facilitating the smuggling of over 60 trucks of chrome concentrate into South Africa from Zimbabwe.

The smuggling of cigarettes from Zimbabwe into South Africa through illegal crossing points along the Limpopo River is rife.

It is understood that 30 percent of cigarettes in South Africa are from Zimbabwe including Pacific, Remington gold, Mega, Dullahs, Branson and Servilles.