Police in Neno on Monday confiscated 158 kilogrammes of Indian hemp, locally known as chamba.

Police sources, who declined to be named because they do not have authority to speak for the service, have confirmed the incident.

They state that the arresting officers got suspicious of a Nissan Tilda registration number ZA 1545 that strangely cruised past the open Zalewa Roadblock gates at around 6 PM on the day in question.

Upon effecting a chase, the motor vehicle was found abandoned on the Zalewa-Mdeka stretch of the M1 road and a subsequent search discovered 91 bundles of chamba sealed in plastic wrappers.

Neno Police Spokesperson, Austin Kamwendo, claimed no knowledge of the incident and asked for more time to confirm with his colleagues.

However, Kamwendo could not pick up our calls.

Yesterday Tuesday, some police officers at the roadblock were spotted transferring several plastic bundles from the Nissan Tilda onto a private minibus which headed towards Blantyre with nine armed officers on board.

The team returned to Zalewa 7 hours later along with the items and our sources confided that they had gone to Bvumbwe Research Station for laboratory tests and confirmation.