N$9,4m cocaine suspect remanded in custody

A 22-year-old Angolan national, Nicola Basenga, yesterday set a new Namibian record when her appearance in court on a drug-dealing charge set in motion judicial proceedings involving the largest quantity of cocaine ever seized by the Police in Namibia.

Basenga, appearing downcast, was not asked to make any statements when she appeared before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on a charge of dealing in 21 kilograms of cocaine yesterday morning. She did not have a legal representative when she made her first court appearance following her arrest at the Hosea Kutako International Airport on Monday.Public Prosecutor Vanessa Stanley asked the Magistrate to postpone Basenga’s case to July 23 for further investigations, and added that Basenga should remain in custody in the meantime.Magistrate Jacobs made an order as requested, and also directed that Basenga should be kept at the Windhoek Central Prison.Basenga was arrested after customs officials who searched her luggage at the airport on Monday afternoon discovered suspicious-looking cardboard shirt stiffeners in 112 new shirts in three large suitcases that Basenga is alleged to have had with her.She had arrived at the airport on a flight from Johannesburg.Her journey had started in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Detective Inspector Barry de Klerk of the Namibian Police’s Drug Law Enforcement Unit reported on Tuesday.Upon opening one of the cardboard pieces around which new shirts are usually folded so that they can keep their shape, the customs officials discovered a hidden compartment filled with white powder.Drug Law Enforcement Unit members later tested that with a portable testing kit, which indicated that the powder contained cocaine.A total of 112 carton shirt stiffeners that appeared to be unusually padded, and are now suspected to have been stuffed with cocaine, was found in Basenga’s luggage, according to the Police.De Klerk said on Tuesday that it was suspected that concealed in Basenga’s luggage was some 21 kg of cocaine, which would have a street market value of about N$9,45 million in Namibia.Such a quantity of cocaine would be the largest single consignment of the drug yet to have been found by the Police in Namibia.Two fellow Angolans – women aged 50 and 33 respectively – were arrested at the same time as Basenga.By yesterday, though, they were released again without having been charged.* In yesterday’s edition of The Namibian, it was reported that the previous largest quantity of cocaine that the Police seized in Namibia, was 17,5 g of the drug that was found in Windhoek in August 1997.It was, in fact, 17,5 kg.She did not have a legal representative when she made her first court appearance following her arrest at the Hosea Kutako International Airport on Monday.Public Prosecutor Vanessa Stanley asked the Magistrate to postpone Basenga’s case to July 23 for further investigations, and added that Basenga should remain in custody in the meantime.Magistrate Jacobs made an order as requested, and also directed that Basenga should be kept at the Windhoek Central Prison.Basenga was arrested after customs officials who searched her luggage at the airport on Monday afternoon discovered suspicious-looking cardboard shirt stiffeners in 112 new shirts in three large suitcases that Basenga is alleged to have had with her.She had arrived at the airport on a flight from Johannesburg.Her journey had started in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Detective Inspector Barry de Klerk of the Namibian Police’s Drug Law Enforcement Unit reported on Tuesday.Upon opening one of the cardboard pieces around which new shirts are usually folded so that they can keep their shape, the customs officials discovered a hidden compartment filled with white powder.Drug Law Enforcement Unit members later tested that with a portable testing kit, which indicated that the powder contained cocaine.A total of 112 carton shirt stiffeners that appeared to be unusually padded, and are now suspected to have been stuffed with cocaine, was found in Basenga’s luggage, according to the Police.De Klerk said on Tuesday that it was suspected that concealed in Basenga’s luggage was some 21 kg of cocaine, which would have a street market value of about N$9,45 million in Namibia.Such a quantity of cocaine would be the largest single consignment of the drug yet to have been found by the Police in Namibia.Two fellow Angolans – women aged 50 and 33 respectively – were arrested at the same time as Basenga.By yesterday, though, they were released again without having been charged.* In yesterday’s edition of The Namibian, it was reported that the previous largest quantity of cocaine that the Police seized in Namibia, was 17,5 g of the drug that was found in Windhoek in August 1997.It was, in fact, 17,5 kg.