Police have arrested two men and a woman who were disguising themselves as taxi operators targeting unsuspecting passengers to rob them.
The suspects’ scheme backfired when they unknowingly tried to rob an undercover police officer who boarded the suspects’ taxi as a passenger.
According to Hastings Chigalu, spokesperson for the Lilongwe police, the incident happened in the early hours of Thursday.
The suspects were giving a man a ride from Kanengo to town around 5 am but instead of continuing to town, they changed course and attempted to rob him.
A struggle broke out as they tried to steal his wallet, unaware that he was an undercover police officer. When he resisted, they let him out of the car.
The officer quickly reported the incident to his colleagues, and by that afternoon, Chitsime police officers had tracked down and arrested the three suspects at a checkpoint on the M1 road.
The suspects were identified as Chimwemwe Banda, 25; Gift Mbewe, 26; and Charity Kathumba, 26.
Chigalu reported that the suspects admitted to using this tactic to rob other people in the past, and the police have already recovered some stolen belongings.
