Cocaine-in-stomach trial set for early ’08

NAMIBIA’S first trial in which someone will be prosecuted on a charge of smuggling cocaine into the country inside his digestive system is scheduled to take place in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in early February next year.

Making his second appearance in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in less than a week, the man who will have to be in the dock during that trial, Bruno da Silva Paiva, was informed yesterday that his trial is scheduled to take place on February 5 and 6 next year. The Angolan-born Paiva was informed on Thursday last week that the Prosecutor General had decided that he should be arraigned in the Magistrate’s Court on a charge of dealing in a dangerous dependence-producing drug, alternatively possessing such a drug.Paiva should be indicted on a charge of dealing in 436,4 grams of cocaine, valued at N$218 215, in Windhoek on April 25 last year, alternatively possessing the drug, the PG instructed.The date for Paiva’s trial was set yesterday.Paiva, who turned 30 on Saturday, remains free on bail of N$20 000 until the scheduled start of the trial.In past cases in which people have been accused of smuggling cocaine into Namibia, the methods and vessels used to hide the drugs have included electrical transformers, files, women’s shoes, men’s shirts, a photo album, a loaf of bread and the frame of a television trolley.Paiva’s case, however, is the first in which someone is being accused of smuggling cocaine inside two human bodies.Paiva was arrested on April 25, shortly after he and his wife, Darlin da Silva Paiva, had returned to Namibia following a visit to Sao Paulo in Brazil.She died from a suspected cocaine overdose in the couple’s flat near the city centre.During an autopsy, it is alleged, 31 plastic-covered pellets of cocaine were found in her digestive system.One of these objects had burst, leading to the suspected overdose.She was 26 years old.Another 13 similar objects were allegedly recovered from Paiva’s digestive tract.The couple had a daughter, now aged six.She is living with her mother’s family.The Angolan-born Paiva was informed on Thursday last week that the Prosecutor General had decided that he should be arraigned in the Magistrate’s Court on a charge of dealing in a dangerous dependence-producing drug, alternatively possessing such a drug.Paiva should be indicted on a charge of dealing in 436,4 grams of cocaine, valued at N$218 215, in Windhoek on April 25 last year, alternatively possessing the drug, the PG instructed.The date for Paiva’s trial was set yesterday.Paiva, who turned 30 on Saturday, remains free on bail of N$20 000 until the scheduled start of the trial.In past cases in which people have been accused of smuggling cocaine into Namibia, the methods and vessels used to hide the drugs have included electrical transformers, files, women’s shoes, men’s shirts, a photo album, a loaf of bread and the frame of a television trolley.Paiva’s case, however, is the first in which someone is being accused of smuggling cocaine inside two human bodies.Paiva was arrested on April 25, shortly after he and his wife, Darlin da Silva Paiva, had returned to Namibia following a visit to Sao Paulo in Brazil.She died from a suspected cocaine overdose in the couple’s flat near the city centre.During an autopsy, it is alleged, 31 plastic-covered pellets of cocaine were found in her digestive system.One of these objects had burst, leading to the suspected overdose.She was 26 years old.Another 13 similar objects were allegedly recovered from Paiva’s digestive tract.The couple had a daughter, now aged six.She is living with her mother’s family.