Another UK-bound “Zim chamba package” intercepted at KIA

Police at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) on Saturday intercepted four chamba “cakes” weighing 4.5kg posted from Harare, Zimbabwe, and heading to the United Kingdom on Kenyan Airways.

This came after the police at KIA on Thursday also intercepted another package of chamba (Cannabis sativa) weighing 4kg posted from Harare, again, en route to an address in London, UK.

Both the Thursday and Saturday packages were posted through Kenyan Airways flying to the United Kingdom through KIA, according Sgt. Sapulain Chitonde, spokesperson for KIA Police.

The chamba was packaged in form of cakes and wrapped in carbon papers spread with hot pepper outside apparently to kill the drug’s notable smell, according to Chitonde.

But unlike the Thursday package which bore the name, Clayton Hickey, as the one who posted it in Harare and Richard Peterson as the recipient in London, the Saturday package had Mary Jackson, and Paul Jackson, as the sender in Harare and receiver in London respectively.

“We have not yet made any arrest in connection with the chamba packages but we are currently communicating with our counterparts in Zimbabwe to work together in tracing the culprits,” said Chitonde.

Between September and November 2015 KIA handled over 10 similar cases except that the parcels were posted from Blantyre to various destinations in Europe mostly via Ethiopian Airways.

During the same period, Police in Blantyre arrested Nigerian national, Mzee Chidiebere at Blantyre Post Office on suspicions that he was behind the posting of the packages of chamba to Europe.

Importation, exportation, possession or consumption of chamba is illegal in Malawi under Sec. 11 (A) of the Penal Code as read with Regulation 19 of Dangerous Drug Act, according to Chitonde.mana