Pretoria: 10 June 2016- Continuous attempts by drug mules and dealers at using the OR Tambo International Airport as a transit hub to deliver drugs else where in the country and beyond continue to suffer tremendously due to the heightened level of alertness by the police based there.
In the latest incident a 24 year old woman travelling on an Angolan-issued passport was yesterday nabbed by the Transnational Investigation Team of the South African Police Service after it was discovered that she had swallowed almost a kilogramme of cocaine the value of which was found to be worth two hundred and seventy one thousand rand. She was in transit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, from Sao Paolo, Brazil.
She has been charged with dealing in drugs and is expected to appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court tomorrow once the police are satisfied that she had released all the drugs in her body. She is the second person this week to have tried the swallowing trick, hoping that she will pass the airport’s checks undetected.
Early this week a man travelling on a Nigerian-issued passport was nabbed after it was found that he had also swallowed cocaine. Paul Okechukwu Okwo, 46, was arrested by the same team on Tuesday shortly after landing from Brazil. He was en route to Lagos, Nigeria, when scanners revealed that he had swallowed drugs. He has already appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court to face drug dealing charges and his case has been postponed to 15 June 2016 for residential address verifications.
