Army stops over E4m goods from being smuggled

MBABANE - Hardly two months into the year, one instance of foiled smuggled contraband almost equated to what was controlled last year.

This is after a South African-based businessman, Lazarus Mphosi, who owns a number of filling stations in the country, was arrested this week by the police while allegedly hiding E879 000 under his car seats.

Mphosi was charged with contravening the Money Laundering and Finance of Terrorism Act of 2011 and had his stash of cash detained for a period of 90 days.

However, last year, the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) recovered E916 646.93 of smuggled items.

Controlled

According to the Ministry of National Defence and Security annual report 2023/24, the UEDF also controlled E241 551 worth of contraband through the customs border control points across the country.

The undeclared goods included electronic gadgets, second-hand clothing, cigarettes, alcohol and pharmaceutical lotions.

These were either from South Africa or Mozambique and they were handed over to the Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS).

Along with that, the UEDF stopped over E4.4 million of goods from being smuggled out of the country.

attempted

Of this amount, about E479 000 was in lieu of the costs of 104 cattle that were attempted to be smuggled out of the country through informal crossings.

On top of that, seven vehicles were being controlled and smuggled.

The total value of the vehicles is E3 937 500.

Adding up E479 000, the total estimated cost controlled by soldiers is E4 416 500.

Also, two unlicensed shotguns and zamazamas smuggling Green Chert were detained.