The Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) has seized 5 commercial buses valued at over 1.1 million Kwacha and a fully furnished house of unknown value in Lusaka suspected to have been obtained from proceeds of crime.
DEC Public Relations Officer Mwenge Mulenga has told RCV News in a statement today, that the seizure follows a series of intelligence investigations by the Anti Money Laundering Investigations Unit that have connected the said properties to an arrest that was done by the Commission in July 2023 involving seven suspects who were found with hard drugs, including Cocaine, Heroin and Diazepam.
Mr. Mulenga said the seized assets, including buses bearing registration numbers AID 734, BAH 1188, AQB 957, AIC 1975, and BAV 2165, were registered in the names of unidentified individuals who have since switched off phones and gone into hiding including the individual that used to receive the cashing from the drivers of the said buses.
“The Commission’s investigations revealed that the house in question, whose records do not exist with local authorities, was registered under a power utility company using the details of a known individual who has denied ownership of the property”, said Mr. Mulenga
Mr. Mulenga said those who wish to claim the properties mentioned above should be notified that that the forfeiture process to the state, of the, said tented properties has since been instituted.
He said the Commission will proceed to surrender the assets to the state within 6 months specified period where no proceedings or claim takes place.
Bibiana Lambart
