Crimes and Courts<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MBIRE, Mashonaland Central \u2013 A serving Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officer is among ten suspects arrested in connection with a brazen armed robbery at a gold mine in Mbire, where workers were abducted and property worth thousands of US dollars was stolen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a police memorandum dated 11 July 2025, the gang\u2014some dressed in full police uniform and armed with AK-47 rifles\u2014raided the MMC Mining Syndicate at Katope River on the night of 9 July, posing as law enforcement officers conducting an inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They claimed to be police officers, ordered everyone to gather, then robbed us at gunpoint,” said one of the victims, who handed over US$5,000 and 15 grams of gold before being forced into a getaway vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suspects loaded approximately 50kg of gold-laced carbon into a Honda Fit before fleeing. A female mine worker managed to escape and alert the mine manager, Bernard Arikadara, who mobilized a pursuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We intercepted one of their vehicles, but they fired at least seven shots, blowing out our tyres and forcing us to retreat,” Arikadara recounted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police later arrested Tawanda Chihwani, a ZRP Support Unit officer stationed at the New Parliament base in Harare, who allegedly stole two AK-47 rifles and police gear for the robbery. He led investigators to the recovery of firearms, uniforms, explosives, and stolen phones hidden in Nyamhara Village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We have recovered some property, but investigations are ongoing,” said a police spokesperson, adding that two Honda Fit vehicles used in the robbery were seized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The total stolen goods were valued at US$7,650, with only US$1,000 worth recovered so far. A .303 rifle taken from the mine remains missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zim GBC News\u00a9\ufe0f2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Crimes and Courts MBIRE, Mashonaland Central \u2013 A serving Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officer is among ten suspects arrested in connection with a brazen armed robbery at a gold mine… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-and-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7686,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions\/7686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}