Police hush up escape of ‘cocaine queen’

THE Namibian Police have been left empty-handed and with egg on their faces after the suspect in Namibia’s largest-ever cocaine smuggling case escaped from custody.

Angolan national Nicola Basenga, who is accused of smuggling a record 21 kg of cocaine into Namibia almost two years ago, escaped from the Hosea Kutako International Airport Police Station holding cells four months ago. The Police have kept the incident quiet since then, but confirmed her escape on enquiry this week.”We were not informed and nothing was forwarded to us,” Warrant Officer James Matengu, a Police spokesperson attached to the Public Relations and Liaison Division, said on Wednesday.”We are hearing it from you people, which is not supposed to be the case,” he told The Namibian.Matengu added yesterday that he had been informed, after further enquiries with the Police officer supposed to be investigating Basenga’s escape, that she had escaped on a Saturday afternoon “at the end of October” last year.He was not provided with the exact date of the escape.The 24-year-old Basenga was being kept in custody at the Hosea Kutako International Airport Police Station.Matengu said according to the officer investigating the escape, the incident appears to have happened during an afternoon shift change, when someone may have left a cell door open, giving Basenga a golden opportunity to make a dash to freedom.The incident is still being investigated, and an internal investigation into possible negligence on the part of Police officers is also continuing, Matengu said.As of yesterday, though, Basenga remained unaccounted for.She was arrested at Hosea Kutako International Airport on May 24 2004, after she had arrived in Namibia on a flight from Johannesburg.She had earlier flown to South Africa from the Brazilian city Sao Paulo, the Police’s Drug Law Enforcement Unit reported shortly after her arrest.Basenga was arrested after a search of her luggage showed that she had a large number of new shirts, still enclosed in their packaging, in three suitcases that she had with her.When alert Customs officers took a closer look at some of the 112 shirts, they noticed that the pieces of cardboard over which the shirts had been folded appeared to be thicker than normal.Upon further investigation, it was claimed, it was found that those shirt stiffeners held hidden compartments containing cocaine.Some 21 kg of the drug was removed from the cardboard stiffeners.It was the largest single consignment of cocaine yet to have been confiscated by the Police in Namibia.At the time, that hoard of cocaine was valued at some N$9,45 million.Basenga was still awaiting the start of her trial on a charge of dealing in cocaine – an offence that could have earned her a maximum sentence of up to 15 years’ imprisonment, or a fine of N$30 000, or both – at the time of her escape.An attempt had been made in November 2004 to buy Basenga’s way out of the case against her, the Police have alleged previously.Two men who were claimed to have been related to Basenga’s boyfriend were arrested in that connection in November 2004.It was alleged that they had approached Detective Inspector Barry de Klerk, the officer attached to the Drug Law Enforcement Unit who was investigating the case against Basenga, with an offer to pay him N$10 000 in return for getting hold of the Police docket on her case.They had allegedly also enquired about the possibility of getting inside help from the Police to organise an escape for Basenga.De Klerk set a trap for them, and then had them arrested after they had handed over the money to him for the docket, it was reported at the time.The case against the two men, named as Miaka Aliano and Joao Claudio on the record of their bribery case, is also still pending.The Police have kept the incident quiet since then, but confirmed her escape on enquiry this week.”We were not informed and nothing was forwarded to us,” Warrant Officer James Matengu, a Police spokesperson attached to the Public Relations and Liaison Division, said on Wednesday.”We are hearing it from you people, which is not supposed to be the case,” he told The Namibian.Matengu added yesterday that he had been informed, after further enquiries with the Police officer supposed to be investigating Basenga’s escape, that she had escaped on a Saturday afternoon “at the end of October” last year.He was not provided with the exact date of the escape.The 24-year-old Basenga was being kept in custody at the Hosea Kutako International Airport Police Station.Matengu said according to the officer investigating the escape, the incident appears to have happened during an afternoon shift change, when someone may have left a cell door open, giving Basenga a golden opportunity to make a dash to freedom.The incident is still being investigated, and an internal investigation into possible negligence on the part of Police officers is also continuing, Matengu said.As of yesterday, though, Basenga remained unaccounted for.She was arrested at Hosea Kutako International Airport on May 24 2004, after she had arrived in Namibia on a flight from Johannesburg.She had earlier flown to South Africa from the Brazilian city Sao Paulo, the Police’s Drug Law Enforcement Unit reported shortly after her arrest.Basenga was arrested after a search of her luggage showed that she had a large number of new shirts, still enclosed in their packaging, in three suitcases that she had with her.When alert Customs officers took a closer look at some of the 112 shirts, they noticed that the pieces of cardboard over which the shirts had been folded appeared to be thicker than normal.Upon further investigation, it was claimed, it was found that those shirt stiffeners held hidden compartments containing cocaine.Some 21 kg of the drug was removed from the cardboard stiffeners.It was the largest single consignment of cocaine yet to have been confiscated by the Police in Namibia.At the time, that hoard of cocaine was valued at some N$9,45 million.Basenga was still awaiting the start of her trial on a charge of dealing in cocaine – an offence that could have earned her a maximum sentence of up to 15 years’ imprisonment, or a fine of N$30 000, or both – at the time of her escape.An attempt had been made in November 2004 to buy Basenga’s way out of the case against her, the Police have alleged previously.Two men who were claimed to have been related to Basenga’s boyfriend were arrested in that connection in November 2004.It was alleged that they had approached Detective Inspector Barry de Klerk, the officer attached to the Drug Law Enforcement Unit who was investigating the case against Basenga, with an offer to pay him N$10 000 in return for getting hold of the Police docket on her case.They had allegedly also enquired about the possibility of getting inside help from the Police to organise an escape for Basenga.De Klerk set a trap for them, and then had them arrested after they had handed over the money to him for the docket, it was reported at the time.The case against the two men, named as Miaka Aliano and Joao Claudio on the record of their bribery case, is also still pending.