The police in the lakeshore district of Salima have arrested a 42-year old man for being found with medical drugs believed to be the property of Malawi Government.
Gift Chitowe, Salima Police Public Relations Officer confirmed to The Maravi Post the arrest of Julius Maliyusi Simfoliano who was in possession of 436 Blisters of Lumefantrine Artemether (LA), drugs used for malaria treatment.
Chitowe told The Maravi Post in an interview on Friday that the incident happened evening of Wednesday, June 3, 2015 along Salima-Nkhotakota road near Salima Secondary School when the police traffic were conducting their usual spot checks on the roads.
The Salima Police Publicist said on this day, the suspect was in a minibus which was coming from Benga in Nkhotakota district on the way to Golomoti in Dedza district such that when the police stopped the vehicle, they found the drugs and later Simfoliano confessed as the owner of the drugs.
“Upon questioning the suspect, he told the police that drugs were bought at Benga Trading Centre in Nkhotakota which led the police suspecting that the drugs were bought at Alinafe Mission Hospital at Benga not the trading centre as the Simfoliano was putting it.
“When we engaged the Mission hospital administrator, he downplayed the missing of the drugs at the hospital as their stocks remained un tampered were as we suspected that the drugs were smuggled from one of the district’s governmental health facilities hence such an arrest for more revelation”, explains Chitowe.
Simfoliano hails from Chagontha village in the Traditional Authority, (TA) Kachindamoto in Dedza district and still remains in police custody to appear before Salima First Grade Magistrate court soon to answer charges of being found with medical drugs without license.
