Coke mules made to sweat ‘it’

FOUR of five Angolan men arrested on charges of cocaine possession earlier this week could not appear in court yesterday, as the drugs are still being flushed out of their systems.

By yesterday afternoon, the Police had reportedly managed to recover 255 cocaine capsules – valued at approximately N$1,2 million – from the four, who have been held at the Katutura State Hospital since their arrest at Hosea Kutako International Airport outside Windhoek on Wednesday.
One of the four expelled 100 capsules after being given a laxative.
Journalists and patients at the Katutura hospital yesterday were stopped in their tracks by his seemingly uncontrollable screaming.
‘Jesus, Mãe,’ (‘Jesus, mother’) he shrieked again and again as he passed the capsules, which are three centimetres long and one centimetre in diameter.
The suspects arrived on a flight from Johannesburg, after initially boarding a plane in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Namibian Police’s Drug Law Enforcement Unit, acting on tip-offs, chalked up another success yesterday afternoon, when another group, also apparently travelling from Brazil, were allegedly found in possession of cocaine.
According to initial information, a woman in this group allegedly tested positive for having the drug in her bloodstream, and was to be taken to hospital to flush the suspected cocaine capsules from her body.
A man arrested a day earlier on Tuesday, and who appeared in court yesterday, was identified as 49-year-old Celestino Massibi.
He was charged with the possession of cocaine worth approximately N$675 000.
Massibi was denied bail and will reappear in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on July 14.
The Police yesterday displayed the confiscated drugs to the media, among a host of other items retrieved during Police operations since January.
These included laptop computers, firearms and perishable goods apparently stolen from shebeens and houses in the Khomas Region.
The Khomas Regional Commander, Commissioner, Samuel //Hoëbeb, reported that the Police have arrested a total of 2001 suspects during operations in the region between January and March.
‘As I’m speaking to you now, our holding cells are overcrowded with suspects. The capacity of our holding cells is 705 suspects, but currently we have 1 079 suspects in the cells,’ he said.
He also thanked the department of Prisons and Correctional Services for assisting the Police in holding ‘hardcore’ trial-awaiting prisoners at the Windhoek Central Prison.