Avenues celebrity drug house busted
Saturday Lifestyle Writer
It was the devil’s lair.
One that was becoming the playground of the celebrity who’s who in Harare who needed a fix of anything from marijuana to crack cocaine, from illegal abuse of prescription medication containing codeine to a quick minute with a sex worker.
Now after the ground-breaking exposé courtesy of Saturday Lifestyle last Saturday, fast acting police who were on their toes, quickly moved in to bust the ring and restored pride into the policing services in Zimbabwe.
In super quick sting raids, the police made raids on the day and busted at least 15 people in what was definitely a ‘‘rainbow nation’’ of crack-heads including pregnant women, white men, coloured folk as well as black runners and users.
“We are super proud of the police for their quick response barely hours after the story broke in The Herald,” said a tenant at Mordon Place; the flat in question.
“Such journalism and policing combined are what make life worth the living and make us feel safe knowing that there are some professionals that still work for the greater good,” added the ecstatic resident.
Number 12 Mordon Place had attracted celebrities, including perennial abuse addict Soul Jah Love, who has battled addiction and has had numerous interventions by friends and relatives seemingly to no or little change.
His band’s kombi (commuter omnibus) had been impounded by the drug cabal in lieu of money that he allegedly owed them.
But in scenes reminiscent of the busting of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, this mini cartel never saw it coming and a large experienced team of anti-narcotics cops closed in on the three-storey apartment and arrested the crack-heads in their moments of enjoying their ‘‘highs’’.
Reports say two people were found in possession of cocaine while many others were found in possession of other drugs for which they were busted and whisked away to the charge office while the Old Bill made arrangements to make them answer for their misdeeds.
Scenes of women with seemingly brand spanking sets of handcuffs were greeted with muted relief by the residents, who had endured several months of disturbances from fights, stolen goods, urine at doors, saliva pools and used condoms on their corridors with each waking day.
“Perhaps there are many other people in the Avenues who have to endure the seedy establishment types that we were being subjected to. They should take heart knowing that they do not need to endure this hell; the police are there and willing and able to swoop in timeously and our case is testimony that the law and law enforcers still work and are professional,” said the resident.
The police also probed the high number of ‘‘alien’’ cars that were being parked in the driveway and parking lot which residents had no idea as to their origin, with suspicions that they were also linked to the shady dealings in the Devil’s Lair in number 12.
The owner of the flat, who had sneered at being called out to fix the mess of her tenants before the option to bring in the police was finally reached, one self-proclaimed war veteran Hazvineyi Yaka, was reportedly also going to be called by the cops to ensure that she had no link to the shady tenants in her flat.
A source said barring the eviction of the tenants outright, the flat shall always be on the police’s radar until it was established that the cancer had been cut off for good and would not recur whatsoever.
“It’s a mark of good journalism,” said The Herald editor In Chief Caesar Zvayi responding to praise that he received after causing the prompt positive change.
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