FOUR people were arrested Sunday morning in Kigali after three sacks full of marijuana were discovered in a vehicle in which they were travelling.

Joseph Ngirabakunzi also known as Victorie, Jonathan Hakizimana, a driver and 18-year old Emmanuel Ndayisenga were arrested in Gisozi as they were transporting marijuana to one Eliazeri Nsengiyumva, the suspected client who was also arrested.

Both Ngirabakunzi and Nsengiyumva are motorcycle taxi operators in Kigali while Ndayisenga, a Burundian teenager who has been in the country for three months, is Ngirabakunzi’s house-help.

By yesterday afternoon, the four were still detained at Police Central Headquarters in Muhima.

Police Spokesperson, Supt. Eric Kayiranga who confirmed the arrests, said that information about the suspects’ dealings had been communicated earlier to police by residents.

"We received information from residents, and the suspects were arrested as they transported the drugs to the suspected buyer who was also apprehended,” Kayiranga said

Hakizimana, however, said in a separate interview that he had been hired by Ngirabakunzi to transport the merchandise and had agreed a fee of Rwf 5,000.

"But he did not tell me what was in the sacks. He only told me that they were goods to be transported to a customer at Cyahafi,” he said.

However, Ngirabakunzi claimed that he too, had not known what was in the sacks. He said that he was just commissioned by Nsengiyumva to bring him the sacks and he would be paid Rwf 50, 000, a claim Nsengiyunva dismissed.

Nsengiyunva had just been released from prison for the same crime. The four might face a sentence of three months to five years or a fine of not less than Rwf 250, 000, or both, if found guilty.

In a related development, police in Kicukiro District are also holding a former employee of ADMA International, a local biscuits’ manufacturing company, who is alleged to have swindled the company’s Rwf 4.5 million before escaping to Uganda.

Abdoullar Karambizi, a former accountant of the company who went missing in June this year, was extradited last week after he was arrested in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

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