Kiosk Owners In Illicit Alcohol Front

FRANCISTOWN: Letlhakane Police Station commander, superintendent Michael Maphephu has revealed that there is a growing concern of traders who use their businesses to distribute illicit alcohol despite the ban.

Maphephu told The Monitor that there is a new trend of tuck shop owners who sell different goodies under false pretences whereas they are distributing illicit alcohol.

He stated they have registered five cases of sale of alcohol since the beginning of the month during the ban.

The station head is worried that such people distribute undeclared goods, which enter Botswana through ungazetted points of entry from neighbouring countries.

He said such traders use their businesses as a front to do the illegal dealings of selling alcohol.

Maphephu said recently they arrested a woman aged 33 of Mokoboxane village for failure to comply with COVID-19 regulations along Francistown-Letlhakane road.

He stated that the woman was driving a Toyota Hilux at around 11:50 p.m. where her bakkie was stopped and searched by police on patrol near Tsutsuga settlement.

He explained that when the police searched the woman’s car they found stock meant for the tuck shop in the back. Maphephu indicated that upon being questioned by the officers on patrol about her whereabouts, the woman gave dodgy answers leading to their suspicions that she was hiding something. He said the officers then decided to offload all the stock from the car where they then discovered the illicit brandies at the bottom of the tuck shop goods.

The station commander added they retrieved 1,500 bottles of alcohol of King Stallion and Black Panther brandy. He said the seized illicit alcohol has a market value of P30,000 as each bottle of brandy costs P20. The Letlhakane police boss indicated that the woman informed the officers that she was supplied by a certain individual in Francistown.

He stated that the same woman was charged for failure to declare goods and failure to comply with COVID-19 regulations and was fined P10,000. Maphephu said all the indications show that illicit alcohol is thriving in the black market despite the sales ban.

He added that some Batswana from villages such as Senyawe, Siviya and Jackalas No: 1 located along the Botswana-Zimbabwe border were responsible for fuelling the proliferation of illegal sale of alcohol during the ban.

He pleaded with the community to continue assisting them with tipoffs so that the wrongdoers can be taken to task.