Police in the City of Kigali have discovered a house in Kimisagara Sector of Nyarugenge District that was being used as a store for narcotic drugs.

The house is located in Karwangabo Village, Kamuhoza Cell, where 13 sacks of cannabis weighing about 450kgs, were recovered on Sunday night, and three people arrested over the crime.

Those arrested include the storekeeper identified as Ezekias Mvunabandi; the landlord called Samuel Ahobantegeye, and a motorcyclist identified as Felix Kwizera, who was caught red-handed as he was at the time loading about 4200 pellets of cannabis from the house, to be delivered to yet unknown place.

According to the executive secretary of Kimisagara Sector, Serge Ruzima, the store- was reported by a teenager earlier that day "out of suspicion.”

This prompted local leaders to deploy community patrol commonly known as Irondo, to keep an eye on the house as they waited for the arrival of the police.

Mvunabandi was released from prison in January this year after serving his two-year term over similar crimes.

The store allegedly belongs to a woman identified Jeannette Uwamahoro, who is also Mvunabandi’s sister, linked to various drug trafficking crimes, and still in the hiding.

Uwamahoro’s husband, their daughter and two brothers are also in prison after they were arrested recently in Nyarugenge over drug-related crimes.

In her store in Kimisagara, police also recovered weighing scales that she was reportedly using.

The one-bedroom house had no window as the only window had been sealed-off and a hole drilled in the wall to help the suspected criminals to see what was going on outside.

Meanwhile, the suspects and the narcotics were paraded before hundreds of residents of Kimisagara on Monday.

The central region Police commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Rogers Rutikanga, praised the teenager, whose instinct led to the seizure of the quantities of cannabis, and arrest of the suspects.

"A house that is always closed with vehicles and motorcycles dropping and loading luggage during the day and night, should have raised suspicion even earlier and reported. It is your role as neighbours and Rwandans to report anything suspicious, even when you are not very sure of your instincts,” ACP Rutikanga said.

The house has been reportedly in use for the last two months.

The mayor of Nyarugenge District, Kayisime Nzaramba, wondered how a person can live in the pretext of providing basic necessities to their family on the cost of other Rwandans, whose children consumed illicit drugs.

She also tasked local leaders in Kimisagara, one of the most drug-prone sector in Nyarugenge, to double their effort in registering new members in their villages.

Uwamahoro is also wanted in last week’s similar crimes in which 18 people were arrested in Rwezamenyo and Gitega, also in Nyarugenge, where 300kgs of cannabis were recovered.