TOP suspected Chipinge forex dealer Irene Samupindu has been arrested by the police in an operation to weed out money changers sabotaging Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency and found in possession of more than US$16 000, R80 000 and ZiG23 000.
Samupindu was arrested together with her sister Prudence and they were remanded to today for bail application by Chipinge magistrate Catherine Makaita Dzivanyika.
According to court papers on August 1 at around 2pm, detectives were on surveillance of illegal foreign currency dealers in Chipinge town.
They had trap money in the form of US$20 bank notes and they received a tip-off that Samupindu was allegedly dealing in foreign currency, including doing electronic funds transfer to and from South Africa and buying United States dollars using ZiG and vice versa.
It was further revealed that she was operating from a commuter omnibus that was parked at the front of a Fivet shop, in Chipinge’s central business district.
Acting on the above information, the detectives visited the place and strategically positioned themselves to witness the illegal activities taking place.
The detectives saw the accused person seated in a white Nissan Caravan commuter omnibus, serving different customers.
Samupindu’s sister Prudence was also engaged in similar illegal activities and has since been arrested and is being charged in a separate case.
The detectives also noticed that there was a box of Actellic Gold Dust insecticide on top of the motor vehicle purporting that the accused was selling the product.
After about an hour, the detectives pounced on the accused person and informed her of their mission.
They escorted her to CID Chipinge for further management.
A search was conducted on the accused person and the motor vehicle and 16 debit cards from various banks, a CBZ point-of-sale machine, US$16 367and R82 220, among others were recovered.
It was further noted that the accused person had made several transactions on the day using her CBZ bank account.
Accused was then arrested for unauthorised dealing in foreign currency.
The detectives also recovered from Prudence R13 714, a Samsung Galaxy cellphone with messages confirming dealing in foreign currency.
Thulani Zondwayo represented the State.
