Zambian security agencies have seized smuggled goods, wildlife products and stolen vehicles worth K23.3 million and detained 72 foreign nationals in Lusaka during a five-day operation against cross-border crime, carried out alongside police forces across Southern and Eastern Africa.
The operation, code-named USALAMA-12, ran from October 5 to 9 across Lusaka, Copperbelt, Eastern, Southern and Western provinces. Fourteen people were arrested for various offences, while the 72 foreign nationals were held in the capital for being in the country illegally.
Inspector General of Police Graphel Musamba released the results in a statement, saying the exercise was designed to strengthen regional security by dismantling criminal syndicates and other transnational crime networks. Usalama, he explained, is the Swahili word for security.
The crackdown brought together a wide coalition of state institutions. Officers from the Zambia Police Service worked alongside the Immigration Department, the Cyber Crime Agency, the National Anti-Terrorism Centre, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA).
Zambia’s effort formed part of a wider regional task involving the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) and the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (EAPCCO), with support from the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol). The arrangement places the operation within a regional framework built to pursue crime that does not stop at national borders.
By value, smuggled consumer goods made up the overwhelming bulk of the seizures. The joint team confiscated 14,147 bricks of assorted cigarettes worth more than K14.1 million and 60,528 bottles of assorted alcoholic beverages valued at more than K8.3 million.
Together, those two consignments are worth upwards of K22.4 million, roughly 96 per cent of the entire haul. Smaller quantities of groceries were also recovered, including 29 cases of hot chocolate valued at K15,678 and 54 boxes of pasta worth K21,600, along with a further consignment valued at K10,800.
Six vehicles were also taken off the road. On the Copperbelt, the team impounded three vehicles that Interpol records show were stolen outside Zambia: a white Toyota Hilux double-cab, registration BLB 9684; a grey Toyota Fortuner, registration BCD 9210; and a white Ford Ranger, registration ADE 6634.
In Lusaka, investigators found a Volkswagen suspected to have been smuggled into the country. Two Mercedes-Benz vehicles were also flagged after officers discovered their temporary import permits had expired.
Wildlife crime accounted for some of the most striking arrests. In Lusaka, a man was detained for possessing a pangolin valued at K340,000, the single most valuable wildlife item recovered during the five days.
Further arrests followed the discovery of a dried leopard skin valued at K120,000. In Chibolya township, two men and a woman were picked up after officers found them with 221 kilogrammes of buffalo, hippopotamus and warthog meat worth K178,000.
Elephant ivory surfaced in two separate cases. One man was found with tusks weighing 13 kilogrammes and valued at K103,341, while in Zimba another was caught with pieces of ivory weighing 44.5 kilogrammes and worth K115,000. Between them, the two cases removed 57.5 kilogrammes of ivory from circulation.
In Mumbwa, three men were arrested for possessing the carcass of a Kafue lechwe valued at K10,000. Taken together, the wildlife seizures carry a combined value of about K866,000.
The immigration sweep in Lusaka netted nationals from nine countries. Burundians formed the largest group at 33, close to half of those detained, followed by 18 Congolese and 14 Tanzanians.
The remainder comprised two Malawians and one national each from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, China, Somalia and Rwanda.
The spread of the seizures, from cigarettes and spirits to ivory, bushmeat and foreign-registered vehicles, reflects the range of illicit trade the multi-agency team set out to target. Each category fell under a different agency’s mandate, which explains the presence of revenue, wildlife, environmental, immigration and cyber crime officers within a single operation.
The three Copperbelt vehicles remain impounded on the strength of Interpol records, while the 14 suspects arrested during the operation are being processed for the offences linked to their seizures.
For now, the USALAMA-12 results stand as one of the clearest measures yet of the scale of contraband moving through Zambia, with K22.4 million in cigarettes and alcohol alone intercepted in under a week.
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