Nkhotakota police, acting on a tip, ambushed the house of Felix Maulidi in Mchambwe Village, T/A Mphonde, a few metres from Lake Malawi, on the night of 31 August.[1] Police searched the house without using a police vehicle and found 26 bags of hemp covered with mosquito nets, and arrested Maulidi at once.[1] Maulidi told the police he was only keeping the drug for January Phiri, who had brought it in the night while waiting to ship it to Salima.[1]
Before the police moved on Phiri, two alleged traffickers, Steven Phiri, 30, and Chilizani Mwenda, 20, unknowingly walked past the officers at the scene carrying two black travelling bags.[1] Asked what was in the bags, one of them volunteered that they were carrying the drug, and the police arrested both; the two bags held hemp weighing about 100 kg.[1] Police then arrested January Phiri at the Nkhotakota trading centre.[1]
All four were charged with being found in possession of cannabis sativa, contrary to section 4(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Regulation and section 19(1) of the Dangerous Drugs Act.[1] Nkhotakota police spokesperson Williams Kaponda said Phiri, 30, came from Mwasinja Village, T/A Kachindamoto in Dedza, while Steven Phiri and Mwenda came from Kabuwa Village, T/A Khonsolo in Mzimba.[1]
