Twenty-one people appeared in court in southern Zimbabwe after the discovery of a flourishing marijuana plantation, reports said on Thursday.
The 21 are part of a group of 29 arrested and charged under Zimbabwe’s Dangerous Drugs Act, said the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
The marijuana farm was found after police arrested a man smoking the drug — known locally as mbanje — and he led them to his source, according to the report.
”The detectives discovered almost 40 fields with an average of 1 500 plants,” the paper said. The haul is reported to have a street value of around 15-billion Zimbabwe dollars ($150 000).
Several of those arrested were in their sixties.
Farmers are struggling to produce other kinds of crops in cash-strapped Zimbabwe, where there are significant shortages of the foreign currency, fuel and machinery needed to improve harvests. – Sapa-DPA