Maravi

Chingola cops arrest 2 Chinese for copper theft

COMMENT - 30,000 tonnes of copper? That sounds like a whole lot. At $8000 per tonne, that would be $240 million? 30,000 tonnes is 30,000,000 kilos. Is the writer sure that this isn't a typo? This story is very fishy.

Chingola cops arrest 2 Chinese for copper theft
By Misheck Wangwe in Kitwe
Thu 07 June 2012, 13:24 CAT

TWO Chinese nationals have been arrested for theft of more than 30,000 tonnes of copper ore from Konkola Copper Mines. The recovery of the copper ore by the police Anti-Copper Crack Squad yesterday became the biggest recovery of stolen copper ever recorded.

Police sources revealed that the named suspects, who included a woman, had been arrested and detained in Ndola for copper theft. The sources said the named company was raided by police around 10:00 hours on Tuesday.

"Apparently these Chinese nationals have been in this business of stealing copper for some time now. It was a tip-off from the public and we moved in.
We found heaps and hundreds of bags of copper ore suspected to have been stolen from KCM," a police source said.

The sources said police had started taking the copper ore to KCM plant in Chingola for safekeeping pending further investigations and the suspects would appear in court soon.

"We have detained the two Chinese nationals in Ndola because we strongly feel that there are many people connected to this case even within the police.
These Chinese nationals like corrupting police officers and we know that some police officers are connected. They have been eating with these Chinese so we don't want this case to be compromised. The law must take its course," a police source said.

The sources said fighting copper theft on the Copperbelt was a huge challenge as many Chinese were allegedly in the copper business but had no mines.

The sources said it was sad that they were no strong regulations on the Chinese entering the country in the name of investors.

"Many of these guys don't have mines; they don't have refineries or anything. They have just put up fake companies and they are stealing from major investors like KCM. They are doing a disservice to this country and they must be checked because the country is on the losing side because of their presence," a police source said.

Labels: CHINESE, COPPER, CORRUPTION

posted by MrK @ 3:26 PM