A couple of illegal diamond dealers were arrested on Friday after they were discovered to be hiding diamonds in their car. According to AllAfrica, the diamond dealers were driving a vehicle in Mutare, an eastern city in Zimbabwe. The two drove for a couple of hours before they were stopped in a tollgate in Ruwa. It was here where a team of five police detectives were able to find the diamonds hidden inside a car seat. It took the police detectives over an hour to locate the hidden gems.
Later on, the state-controlled Manica Post reported that the two individuals arrested were "well-known" diamond dealers throughout the city. They were identified as Never Chikwenha and Abbas Macky. The two were on their way to Harare, where they were said to have planned to sell the diamonds with a black market value of over $140,000.
After their arrest, the two appeared before the Harare Magistrates' Courts for an illegal possession of precious stones charge. The two men were represented by lawyers, Dumisani Mtombeni (for Chikwenha) and Tafadzwa Hungwe, (for Macky) who were asked not to enter in a plea but to place a bail.
The two were arrested after detectives from the Vehicle Theft Squad received a tip-off at around 12pm on January 11. They were tipped that the two men were carrying the diamonds and that they were travelling from Mutare to the capital to sell of their loot. When the detectives arrived at the tollgate, they found the two men behind the steering wheel of a Toyota Mark 11. It was there where the search was done, which led to the discovery of the diamonds stashed in the car seat of the driver.
The recovered diamonds were then sent to Mines and Minerals Corporation of Zimbabwe to be weighed. The 14-piece diamonds were found to be genuine stones with a total weight of 38.36 carats.
