A Harare man has appeared in court for alleged possession of cocaine and ecstasy methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as ecstasy, valued $2 700 000.
Tonderai Musekiwa (50), appeared in court on Saturday, facing charges of dealing in dangerous drugs.
He appeared before Harare regional magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna and was remanded in custody to today for bail ruling.
Through his lawyer Mutsa Chivandire, Musekiwa had challenged the possession of drugs saying they were planted onto his vehicle.
The State represented by Deputy Prosecutor-General Mr Michael Reza, opposed bail saying drugs are harming communities, and drug dealers should face the full wrath of the law.
He added that suppliers of drugs should be dealt with differently from those who buy them.
Allegations are that on Wednesday last week at around 3pm, detectives from CID Drugs and Narcotics, Harare, received information to the effect that Musekiwa was supplying cocaine in Greater Harare using a blue mini cooper vehicle, registration number AFV 7970.
On the same date at around 3.30pm, detectives spotted the said motor vehicle parked at Muchecheterwa Chiwashira Building (the new passport office) along Leopold Takawira Street, Harare.
It is alleged that detectives approached the motor vehicle and found the accused person on the driver’s seat.
The detectives introduced themselves and alerted Musekiwa of their mission.
They then searched him and nothing was found on him.
Further searches were carried out in the vehicle, leading to the recovery and seizure of one big sachet containing 410 tablets of suspected ecstasy.
The tablets were under the passenger seat.
Nineteen sachets of suspected cocaine were also found from a fuel cap.
Musekiwa and his vehicle were taken to CID Drugs Harare for further management.
Together with the drugs, Musekiwa was taken to a forensic science laboratory where presumptive tests on suspected cocaine were carried out in his presence, and tested positive to cocaine.
The suspected cocaine and ecstasy tablets were also weighed in Musekiwa’s presence.
The cocaine recorded 18,1826 grammes with an estimated street value of $1 800 000, while ecstasy tablets recorded 134,64277 grammes valued at $902 000.
