Five people are in Police custody in Balaka for allegedly attempting to traffic 74 Malawians to the Republic of South Africa.

Balaka Police Station Operations Officer (SOO) Superintendent Gideon Chisale confirmed of the arrest in an interview with the press.

According to Chisale, the traffickers were intercepted at a roadblock mounted near Mount Meru Filling Station along the Liwonde-Chingeni Road.

He said the trafficked Malawians were in two vehicles a FAW Van registration number MPR 866 GP and a Toyota two tone Registration number KK6417.

A search conducted in the vehicles revealed that there were 74 passengers on board of which 11 were women.