The National Security task-force on Tuesday intercepted three armed robbers along the Limpopo River and recovered an assortment of firearms and ammunition.
National police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said the trio were arrested by a team of security officials who are carrying out an operation to eradicate crime at the border with South Africa.
He said Tafara Moyo (30), Munyaradzi Ncube (27) and Elphus Chigudubudze (34) were nabbed near the Nyampanzani area.
Asst Comm Nyathi he said the police had recovered two pistols, three 9mm rounds, two twelve bore rounds and two pistol magazines from the suspects.
“The three were monitored as they came into the country from South Africa while carrying three bags,” he said.
“They were ambushed, cornered and overpowered.
A search of the bags was done leading to the discovery of two Vector CPI pistols with no serial numbers, a Beretta Gardone CPX4 pistol, serial number 3181E and an empty magazine and another with three rounds of a 9 mm and two by 12 bore gauge sillier”.
Asst Comm Nyathi said preliminary investigations had revealed that the trio were resident in South Africa.
He said it had also been established that they were targeting mostly those people smuggling Remington Gold cigarettes into the neighbouring country.
The senior police officer said they were not relenting on their quest to eradicate crime along the Limpopo River.
“Further investigations into the matter are underway and I want to warn those involved in criminal activities at the border that their days were numbered,” said Asst Comm Nyathi.
The incident comes a few weeks after the police arrested one of the most wanted man, Bigboy Chauke of Mugwazhuli village in Beitbridge.
Chauke has been on the run for almost a month after unleashing a trail of armed robberies along the Limpopo River and some villages east of the border town.
Zimbabwe deployed the taskforce to the border with South Africa in January following an upsurge in criminal activities that were costing the country millions of dollars in import duty.
On the import side, groceries, fuel, diapers, electrical gadgets are the most smuggled items.
Minerals, cigarettes and explosives form the bulky of the goods being smuggling into South Africa.
