33 arrested in security swoop

GATSIBO – Thirty-three people were on Friday arrested with illicit drugs during police operation in Kabarore Sector, Gatsibo District. The suspects include men and women who were involved in illegal transaction of illicit drugs, according to Police. Speaking to The New Times, a police officer at Kabarore Police Post who declined to be named said that the suspects were arrested with large qualities of illicit liquor and 2kgs of marijuana. Police said that other suspects were also arrested with military uniforms. “We carried out a security operation on Friday night and most of the people we arrested were illegally keeping military uniforms in their houses,” a police official said. In an interview with The New Times, most of the suspects denied possession of the illicit items. “They arrested me after bundles of marijuana were discovered in my wife’s shop but they were not mine. I think my wife had bought them for consumption,” one of the suspects, only identified as Ndagijimana, said. His wife, Hope Kayitesi, who was arrested alongside her husband, denied accusations saying that the bundles of marijuana were left in their shop by a visitor. “They (Marijuana) are not mine…they were left by a person who had paid us a visit,” she said. Anyone convicted on possession of illicit drugs faces a prison term ranging from three months to five years, according to article 273 of the Penal Code. Ends

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33 arrested in security swoop