By SYLVIA MWEETWA –
FOUR foreign truck drivers have been arrested by police in Kapiri Mposhi after they were caught with trucks loaded with Mukula logs destined for Lusaka.
A police officer has since been detained for allegedly assisting one of the drivers escape.
Another Tanzanian truck driver has been convicted and fined K4000 by the Mkushi Magistrate Court after he pleaded guilty of being in possession of 444 pieces of Mukula logs while the truck registration number T890 BQC and trailer number T933 have been forfeited to the
State.
Central Province Police chief Standwell Lungu said the four foreign drivers were intercepted by alert police officers on Friday in Kapiri Mposhi and that earlier they had pretended to be carrying food stuffs.
Mr Lungu said after searching the trucks, it was discovered that they were carrying the logs and failed to provide a proper explanation and documentation.
He said five drivers were picked up on the spot but it was later discovered that one was missing. A police officer, he added, had since been arrested for allegedly helping the driver escape leaving the truck behind.
In the Mkushi incident Jonas Raymond Mbugi was fined K4,000 or face nine months imprisonment with hard labour in default after he was convicted.
Mr Lungu said police officers had been dispatched to Mkushi where the cutting down of the Mukula tree had become rampant.
