By ADRIAN MWANZA
FIVE people in NorthWestern Province have been arrested for money laundering activities involving over K5, 500, 000. The Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) also nabbed three individuals for stealing mixed mineral ore weighing 13 kilograms from Kansanshi Mines.
DEC Public Relations Officer Mathias Kamanga has identified the three as Thomas Kabeta 37, Derrick Mutti Wakungoli 37 and Catherine Chilekwa aged 57, all business people from Solwezi. Mr Kamanga said the three who were partners in KMC Minerals Technologies on dates unknown but between January 1, 2021 and October 4, 2021 with other persons unknown, stole the mixed minerals from Kansanshi Mines. He said the trio later hid at a plot in Weigh Bridge area in Solwezi.
“The suspects further traded in minerals without a permit from the Ministry of Mines and received various payments amounting to over K2.5 million through Thomas Kabeta’s account at a named bank,” he said. Mr Kamanga also disclosed that DEC charged and arrested Lawrence Zyambo, aged 41 of Olympia in Lusaka, and Evelyn Supaile, 37 of the same address in Lusaka for stealing about K2.8 million property of a nongovernmental organisation.
He said the three suspects who received various payments amounting to over K2.5 million were also in possession of properties which were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime – a Toyota Hilux, Toyota Prado, Toyota Corolla, a plot and two by three bedroom semidetached flats. Other properties were a three by three bedroom house, a farm containing 16 fish ponds, five by two room caretaker houses and a guard house in Solwezi which had since been seized by DEC. He said they have been charged for theft contrary to section 272 of the Penal Code Act, Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia. He said the trio had also been charged with trading in minerals without a permit or licence and possession of property reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime
