Police in Lusaka uncovered a scam involving the production and sale of counterfeit mealie meal in the Kamwala South area.
Acting on a tip-off from concerned members of the public, officers raided a house near Kamwala South Market around 09:30 hours on Saturday where they discovered a sophisticated operation producing fake mealie meal. The perpetrators had been repackaging maize bran into labeled 25 Kg mealie meal bags, masquerading it as genuine product.
A total of 650 bags of fake 25 Kg mealie meal, labeled as “Good Milling,” were seized during the raid. Additionally, two individuals were apprehended at the scene under suspicion of involvement in the scam. These individuals claimed to be buyers, while the actual owners of the house managed to flee the scene before police arrival. A manhunt has since been launched to apprehend the fleeing suspects.
According to initial investigations, the two arrested suspects had paid K105,000 for the counterfeit bags of mealie meal, which were destined for Sinazongwe District in Southern Province. Inside the raided house, police discovered bags of maize bran, further substantiating the fraudulent activity.
The detained suspects are currently in police custody, where investigations into the elaborate scam are ongoing. Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Danny Mwale, confirmed that heightened efforts are being made to unravel the extent of the operation and bring all perpetrators to justice.
Authorities are urging members of the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities to the police to ensure the safety and integrity of food products in the market.
Almost everything is a scam in Zambia…starting from Politicians making deals with other opposition leaders to undermine our democracy ….UPND got into office via scamming Zambians with the help of Kambwili
Bwana, kambwili worked on the other side and the UPND worked independently on the other side against of. But there was no collar, no friendship, and nothing in common between kambwili and upnd but considering factors that led to the down fall of of were actually many. Cameron, kambwilil utterances, corruption, stealing, upnd campaign, etc, all these WORKED together against of. Kambwili thought he was impressing lungs by insulting other tribes and yet he was adding fire , same with brutality of cadres against citizens
Mathafaka we have produced all the mealie meal you have ever eaten in your useless life. We produced all the mealie you smuggled to your equally useless and unproductive relatives in Zaire. Why do we need to run scams on anything? We are not like you; we are hard working and honest. If it was not for us, some of you would never have tasted beef or maize in your live- you would be eating tute and whatever mbeba you have not burned down from chitemene. Tongas do not steal. We feed. Some of you take what we produce and scam the other ones of you. That is the truth. The Ngoni, the Ndebele, the Kololo/Lozi, the Bemba all have stolen cattle and women from us. This is a fact. We have never stolen anything from anyone. This is also a fact
PF life is not diminishing anytime soon.
These are cases ZP should use salaries on,not on Lungu
We learn our scamming skills from our day to day leaders
No. That is not true. Stealing all some of you have ever done, with you “tolele fye” and “ubomba mwibala” mentality. UPND has never stolen. Even if they wanted to steal, there is nothing to steal. You stole everything we in Southern and Northwestern Produced, which is all Zambia had, when you came to power. You then went abroad, borrowed and stole, meaning that you have already stolen what we have not produced yet, because we are the only ones who are going to pay for everything you have borrowed and stolen. You produce nothing so you do not have to worry about paying.
I sincerely want things to improve in Zambia because am investing my hard earned dollars in Zambia and very soon I will retire and head back home. So i hope things will get better in the next few years and am doing my best to help improve the Zambian economy via my construction business….All the cereal in Zambia is fake and made by Chinese in their backroom factories….like I said almost everything is fake in Zambia…fake friends….fake marriages…fake relatives…fake Politicians with their fake promises
@ Anonymous, a country isn’t like a Flash minibus whereby if the tyre bursts you suspend the trip until you fix or replace it. Some of the decisions that have come from HH make us doubt if indeed he’s a competent technocrat with managerial experience. Just look at the team he’s constituted. They’re incapable of anything. They can’t fix the past, they can’t sort out the present and can’t plan for the future. A competent technocrat can’t spend 2yrs blaming his predecessor. Now he’s added natural disasters. If he understood the reason for the strategic reserve he wouldn’t have allowed those senseless maize exports. Simply put, he’s failed
HH is putting out fires that your mathafaking relatives started when they stole the US $4 billion Northwest and Southern Province had put in the government coffers before they came to power in 2011. They then went abroad, borrowed US $32.5 billion of the worst sort of loans and looted it, leaving the country in a debt trap. Of course you do not talk about this because you want to make sure forget what you did, and vote your tribe back in power. When that happens, you will go back, or go in for the first time, with them, and steal with them. This is what you want, because you have never once complained about the fact that Michael Satan and Edna Lungu are the ones who caused this whole by borrowing and looting an unpayable US $32.5 billion
@Ayatollah, So you expected HH to have repaid all the debt in 2 years? Why should we forget the past when the problems we are facing emanate from the pf regime?
It is easy to destroy an economy but building it takes centuries.
Which country in the world later on in Africa managed to fix an economy in 2 years? So you expect a new government in 2026 will fix the economy in 2 years?
Mwebena Zambia you have short memories, awe in fact you don’t have any.
I don’t think fake is the right word. The best would be uncertified or sub standard. In any case a trader who doesn’t tell the consumer customer the truth on the product they are buying will have committed a crime punishable according to the applicable laws.
Totally agree, the term ‘fake’ mealie meal is misused. Maize bran is a byproduct of mealie meal production, it cannot be classified as fake, substandard byproducts would be more appropriate.
Great work by the law enforcement agencies and the public for the information, such production damages the positive efforts by government and such desperation must be punished. We have a lot of sub standard products in many shelves and inspections should be intensified and brand owners must be vigilant and not wait for death to wake up to brand distorion
This is a criminal activity which has risen as a result of UPND’s failure. They messed up the food security by selling all the strategic reserves that were meant to cushion in times of drought . But the self conceited, all knowing Hakainde without consultation just ordered to have all grain stocks sold as if privatisation of national assets was not enough. Vices like these are offshoots of Govt failures to provide food security. Don’t politicise this it is pure criminality just like UPND’s lies to ascend to power.
This is not true. The problem was cause by your people. Michael Satan and Edna Lungu found US $ 4 billion in the government coffers put there by Northwestern and Southern Provinces, and stole it. They then went abroad and borrowed US $32.5 billion of the worst sort of loans and stole it. This is a fact that you cannot deny. Your people are the ones who have saddled Zambia with a debt trap by which the creditors we are unable to pay are sucking out our natural resources as a result. You have nothing to worry about. Your area has nothing to produce, so it has nothing to lose. You think I am being mean, but I am telling you the truth, and you know it; All the land that YOU have sold to the Boers and the homosexual Lebanese is Tonga land. No land is being sold in your provinces
The criminal is Chendabusiku who moves illegal things at night. Has the likes of Chendabusiku only experienced criminal behaviour now under UPND?? Atleast now under UPND we have such criminals arrested which is a step in the right direction.
I aint following this sensational report: ” a sophisticated operation producing fake mealie meal”? How can one produce fake mealie meal or fake food? Astronauts going into space would probably want to know how to do that and it could be the invention of the century
Yes mealie meal is mealie meal… fake unless someone packed the bags with river sand and call it mealie meal. But the guys used a maize product to make this meal. The only difference is it’s not what we are used to. Is it fit for human consumption? If not why didn’t the maker put label on bags to explain the contents of his product?
Police and other law enforcement agencies should begin to inform Zambians how many cases of law infringement have ended into convictions of offenders. Don’t just keep saying ‘police is investigating, meanwhile police itself is committing crime while investigating through colluding, corruption and nolles. Zambians are fed up with same narratives.
The scam, scam.why a scam on mealie meal. I do not remember if they was a scam on mealie meal in PF Goverment.
WHY? THE PRICE OF MEALIE MEAL WAS CHEAP. K110 TO K140. PER BAGE. NOW K290 TO K380, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT A SCAM!