150 currency traders nabbed
2005-01-21 14:43
Lusaka - Police in Zambia have rounded up over 150 suspected illegal currency dealers, in an operation aimed at wiping out the black market trade.
Police sealed off a main road in the capital's city centre where illegal currency dealers are mostly found and arrested 150 people, a senior police official said.
"We are still screening them before formally charging them," Chendela Musonda said.
The dealers offer better rates than commercial banks which give around 4 700 kwacha to the dollar, while black market prices reach 5 000 kwacha and above.
The government recently introduced new security rules requiring anybody changing money at a bank to produce an identity document and declare the source of the foreign currency - something not required by the illegal traders.
Musonda said the police were also searching for stolen cellular phones and illegal guns that are often sold by the currency dealers. - AFP
- SAPA