Maseru police arrest 24 street vendors in drug crackdown
Lesotho police raided street vendors in Maseru selling marijuana alongside fruit and snacks, arresting 24 people in a crackdown triggered by a public tip-off. Twenty-two appeared before the Maseru Magistrates' Court charged with illegal possession of drugs, while two others were held with suspected cocaine sent for lab testing.
Lesotho police began raiding street drug peddlers in Maseru after a tip-off that vendors were dealing drugs while pretending to sell food such as corn chips, fruit and vegetables.[1]One vendor arrested along Kingsway Road and another at the Moshoeshoe I Statue Park had openly displayed fruit on their tables while allegedly stashing the drugs underneath.[1]
Police arrested 24 street vendors in the operation, most of them dealers selling marijuana alongside regular goods.[1]Twenty-two appeared before the Maseru Magistrates’ Court charged with illegal possession of drugs after allegedly being found with stocks of marijuana.[1]The other two were found with suspected cocaine, which police said they had sent to a laboratory for testing.[1]
Deputy police spokesperson Sub-Inspector ‘Mareabetsoe Mofoka said the dagga was packed in small paper packages called jointers and sold in small quantities, mostly to youths.[1]She said more work was needed to find the suppliers behind the street vendors.[1]The head of the Diamonds and Drugs Unit at police headquarters, Superintendent Retselisitsoe Bokopane, said the harshest sentence handed down during the crackdown was a M10,000 fine or five years’ imprisonment and the lowest a M500 fine.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The article gives no separate dates for the arrests or the court appearance, described only as the week before publication, so 16 February 2022 is the publication date.
No quantities of marijuana were published for any of the 22 vendors.
The suspected cocaine from the other two vendors was sent to a lab; no test result was reported.
Named sentences from the crackdown range from a M500 fine to a M10,000 fine or five years' imprisonment, but no convictions were tied to individual vendors.
The suppliers who packed the dagga for the street vendors were still being sought.
Only one opened account of this event was found after searching in English.
The criminal case against Tom Srugo under section 9(1)(a)–(b) read with section 6 was dismissed for lack of prosecution, and a court order directed the return of 337 plants and 4 kg seized from his Thetsane residence in 2024. Police had still not returned the plants by October 2026, and the Ministry of Health was withholding a licence renewal.
A Federal Airlines aircraft landed unlawfully at Moshoeshoe I airport with 500 kg of cannabis from Thailand, allegedly destined for South Africa. The pilots were fined M200,000 for unlawful landing and sent back; police denied that it was a cannabis seizure. The cannabis and destination claims were allegations, not court findings.
Banel (Pty) Ltd imported 500 kg of dried cannabis flower from Thailand under a permit dated 27 February 2026; police seized it without producing a warrant. The High Court later set aside the seizure and ordered the cannabis returned. The case exposed the gap between the licensed import route and police practice.
Magistrate Puseletso McPherson sentenced 54-year-old 'Matsepang Litabe on 9 February 2026 for unlawful possession of dagga, fining her M4,000 or four years' imprisonment with half suspended. Police had found 115 packets at her residence on a tip-off three days earlier after she failed to produce a licence.