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Beitbridge Bureau
A 36-YEAR-OLD South African national has been fined $600 for attempting to smuggle 100 bricks of export quality cigarettes to the neighbouring country through Beitbridge Border Post.Detectives arrested Lewis Chiwidze of Chikota suburb in Makhado after he tried to leave the country through an illegal crossing point near the old Limpopo Bridge.

Chiwidze was convicted on his own plea of guilty to smuggling by magistrate Innocent Bepura and fined $600 or six months in jail. The cigarettes were forfeited to the state.
Prosecutor Jabulani Mberesi told how on February 16, Chiwidze went to Beitbridge Border Post at around 7PM en-route to South Africa.

He said Chiwidze was carrying a bag containing 100 bricks of Remington Gold cigarettes worth $307. Mberesi said the accused went about all the immigration and customs formalities without declaring the contraband and left for South Africa.