The Zimbabwe Republic Police anti-corruption unit has busted a ring of a massive cellphone smuggling syndicate at Forbes border post over the weekend, The Zim Morning Post has learnt.
The names of the culprits could not be immediately ascertained but they are set to appear at Mutare magistrate’s court on Monday
This prejudices the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority of millions of dollars in revenue .
Police sources who spoke to Zim Morning Post said the cellphones were sourced from China and Dubai.
“What happens is that these people buy the phone sin Dubai and China in large containers and they ship them and dock in Beira.
“From Beira they then smuggle them into the country so we have been investigating this for some time after we followed a tip off.
“We were waiting for the right time to pounce of them and we are glad more leads are opening and more arrests will be made,” said our source.
ZIMRA has been battling with smuggling syndicates at the porous borders.
However, the major head ache is that some of the senior employees work in cahoots with smugglers and rogue elements of the police force.
This complicates the situation as systems are overrode in the favour of smugglers.