OVER 5,000 people w e r e l a s t y e a r arrested by the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) for various drugrelated offences, majority of whom are men. The commission recorded 5,241 arrests countrywide compared to 5, 757 in 2017, representing a reduction of nine percent. Of the total number of people arrested, 375 were female and 4,866 were men, including 295 juveniles aged between 11 and 17.

This is contained in a statement issued yesterday by DEC public relations officer Theresa Katongo. “A total of 1,888 convictions were recorded against 77 acquittals with a further 2,804 cases still pending in the courts of law at various stages,” Ms Katongo said. She said the commission seized 128.82 tonnes of cannabis plants and 22.30 tonnes of cannabis herb with the highest quantity recorded in Muchinga followed by Southern and Eastern provinces, respectively.

“Among other drugs seized by the commission are 177.749 kilogrammes [kg] of miraa, 57.106kg ephedrine, 2.315kg cocaine and 4.121kg heroin,” Ms Katongo said. On money laundering and counterfeit notes, the commission’s anti-money laundering investigations unit arrested 77 people for various money laundering offences. “51 cases involved K37,471,220.18 and US$1,171,064.36,” she said.

Ms Katongo said the commission further seized various assets suspected to be proceeds of crime amounting to K71 million while money seized was K13,043,732.02 and US$59,901.56. “25 people were convicted for various predicate and money laundering offences from 24 cases while five were acquitted by the courts of law,” she said. Ms Katongo said the trend observed in the years under review indicate an increase in cases of fraud and embezzlement of public funds involving officers in the public sector mainly arising from abuse of authority of office.

“Other notable typologies included cybercrime cases involving automated teller machine/credit card cloning while the most prevalent type of money laundering used by suspects was conversion of proceeds of crime into livestock, real estate and motor vehicles,” she said. And the commission, through the national education campaign division, conducted 2,310 awareness activities. “Further, the commission attended to 757 clients under the counselling and rehabilitation programme as compared to 704 in 2017, representing a 7.5 percent increase,” Ms Katongo said. The commission has since launched a strategic p