• The Commission also seized five pistols, seven magazines, 126 rounds of ammunition, and equipment used for measuring Gold.
• DEC received information that a chartered aircraft carrying dangerous goods had landed at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport.
• DEC has seized the Global Express T7-WW on which the seized items were found and another aircraft belonging to a local airline.

Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) has detained 10 suspects including a Zambian following an operation conducted at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport which resulted in the seizure of over US$5 million and 602 pieces of suspected Gold weighing 127.2 kilograms.
Speaking at a media briefing, DEC Director General Nason Banda said during the operation, the Commission together with officers from other Law Enforcement Agencies, also seized five pistols, seven magazines, 126 rounds of ammunition, and equipment used for measuring Gold.
Mr. Banda explained that the Commission received information that a chartered aircraft carrying dangerous goods had landed at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport on 13th August 2023 at 19:00 hours.
He said the nationalities of the people that have been detained include six Egyptians, one Spanish, one Dutch, one Nevisian, and a Zambian, adding that according to preliminary information, the suspects were coming to Zambia from Cairo in Egypt to carry out some business.
Mr. Banda added that the number of suspects to be detained is likely to increase as investigations progress.
“As regards the money, we are certain that these are genuine United States dollars because the Bank of Zambia came in and they are the ones that counted. Just after we finished verification of quantities of the money, everything has been taken into safe custody of the Bank of Zambia.”
“Regarding gold, they just did a presumptive test so they will now get down to verify what kind of gold it is if it is gold at all,” Mr. Banda stated.
He added that the Commission has since seized the Global Express T7-WW on which the seized items were found and another aircraft belonging to a local airline whose make is King Air B190.
“Whenever a vessel is carrying illegal substances or goods, when we seize those goods we also seize the vessel, so in that line we have seized the aircraft which was carrying these items and we have also seized another aircraft which belongs to a local airline to help us with the investigations so in short we have seized two aircrafts,” he stated.
And Mr. Banda said the Commission will now not reveal identifies of the people involved in the gold scandal for now until investigations are concluded.
“Normally when we are carrying out investigations, it is not advisable to mention other issues that are still under investigations because sometimes you find that there is nothing on them but then the name keeps going viral so we want to protect them at the moment and once they give us their part of the story, then we will be able to get back to you,” he added.