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Court Reporter
A 33-year-old Chitungwiza man was last week convicted and sentenced to an effective 18 months imprisonment after he was found guilty of possessing mbanje worth more than US$446.Trymore Kuvarega appeared before Harare magistrate Ms Rumbidzai Mugwagwa and pleaded guilty to the charge of unlawful possession of the dangerous drug.

Ms Mugwagwa had initially sentenced Kuvarega to 24 months in prison before suspending six months of the verdict for five years.

In passing sentence Ms Mugwagwa took into consideration that Kuvarega was a first offender who pleaded guilty to the charges without wasting the court’s  time.

“You are a first offender and you have shown contrition by pleading guilty. However, you committed a serious offence and a custodial sentence is appropriate,” she said.

Agreed facts are that at around 6pm on January 10, detectives from the CID Drugs and Narcotics section received information from an anonymous source that Kuvarega was peddling drugs.

Acting on the information, the detectives went to 34-36th Crescent in Warren Park 1, Harare, where they found Kuvarega sitting in a silver Toyota  car.

The court heard that the detectives identified themselves then searched the motor vehicle, leading to the recovery of a sack containing six grey carrier bags containing mbanje.

The recovered dagga weighed 4,466kg with a street value of US$446,60.