Police burn three tonnes of seized cannabis in Nkhata Bay
Police in Nkhata Bay burned three tonnes of cannabis seized from various people between September 2024 and August 2025, acting on a magistrate court ruling to curb illegal sale and trafficking in the district.
Police in Nkhata Bay District burned three tonnes of cannabis on 11 November
2025 in an exercise ordered by the local court.[1]
Deputy district police spokesperson Devetor Mithi said the cannabis had been
confiscated from various people across the district between September 2024 and
August 2025.[1]He said the burning followed a ruling by the Second Grade
Magistrate’s Court in Nkhata Bay.[1]According to Mithi, destroying the drugs
aims to curb the illegal sale and trafficking of cannabis in the district.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Police at an adhoc roadblock at Phalula, Balaka, stopped a KelFoods company van travelling from Lilongwe to Blantyre on 23 October 2026 and found 26 bags of chamba hidden under 135 bags of maize and egg crates. Driver George Benson, 41, said he loaded the cannabis at Chilanga, Kasungu, for delivery to a woman in Blantyre.
Police in Lilongwe arrested two men on 10 August 2026 after finding 10 bales and 23 packets of cannabis weighing 190 kg in a house in Area 25. Officers said the men had no licence to keep or sell it; one allegedly told them the cannabis came from Eswatini and was bound for Tanzania.
Salima police destroyed about five tonnes of cannabis sativa at Senga Bay on 28 January 2026, burning the drugs under the Police Act and Dangerous Drugs Act provisions that allow disposal of seized drugs after six months with no arrests or claims. The cannabis had been intercepted in roadblocks and stop-and-search operations along major roads.
Kasungu police and the magistrate court burned about two and a half tonnes of Indian hemp, most of it confiscated from three men stopped with 13 bags of chamba at Kalenga Trading Centre in August 2015. The three had been convicted and fined K50,000 each, and the burned pile also included consignments seized at two roadblocks whose owners were never traced.
Arrested 3Convicted 3of it destroyed 2.5 tFine MWK 50,000
