Two cocaine mules jailed

THE ranks of Angolan nationals serving jail terms in Namibia for smuggling cocaine into the country increased by another two people late last week.

With the sentencing of the two Angolans in the Windhoek Regional Court on Friday and Wednesday, five Angolan nationals have received prison terms in that court over the past two weeks alone for trying to smuggle cocaine into Namibia inside their digestive systems. More similar cases are still pending in the same court.
On Wednesday, Magistrate Sarel Jacobs sent Adao De Jesus Ventura Manuel Michinge (35) to jail for an effective eight years. Michinge, who is the father of three children, pleaded guilty to a charge of dealing in dangerous dependence-producing drugs on September 14. He admitted that he brought 823,8 grams of cocaine, valued at about N$411 900, into Namibia on June 30 last year.
Another Angolan citizen, João Mvula Bampu (45), was sentenced by Magistrate Dinnah Usiku on Friday. He was sentenced to an effective five years’ imprisonment.
Bampu also admitted that he was guilty of dealing in cocaine. He admitted on September 28 that he was caught bringing 883,5 grams of cocaine, which has a local street market value of about N$441 750, into Namibia through Hosea Kutako International Airport on July 9 last year.
Both men told the court they had swallowed the cocaine in Brazil. They both also claimed they had travelled from Angola to Brazil to buy clothes that they were planning to sell in Angola.
Michinge related that in Brazil he was approached by a man who asked him to take the cocaine with him to the man’s wife in Angola.
Bampu informed Magistrate Usiku in a written plea explanation that his trip to Brazil started going wrong when his money was stolen. He claimed he then met a Nigerian man who recruited him to smuggle cocaine back to Angola.
He was told he would be paid US$3 500 for doing this job, and although he knew he would be committing a crime if he did it, he agreed to smuggle the cocaine, ‘due to my financial situation out of desperation’, Bampu claimed.
The Nigerian, Bampu said, told him that if he swallowed the cocaine and carried it in his stomach he would not be detected by the authorities.
He was caught at the airport, though, and 100 plastic-covered ‘bullets’ of cocaine were recovered from his digestive tract.
Michinge was found to be carrying 86 such cocaine-filled ‘bullets’, or ‘tubes’, in his abdomen, Magistrate Jacobs was told.
With Bampu’s sentencing, Magistrate Usiku remarked that she was accepting his guilty plea as a sign of remorse and as an indication that he is taking responsibility for his misdeed.
Bampu informed the court that he has six children, aged between four and 20, and that he was the sole breadwinner for his family. With his father having lost both his legs in Angola’s civil war, he was also taking care of his parents, Bampu said.
Sending Bampu to prison would undoubtedly have an effect on the lives of the people who are dependent on him, but that this is inevitable and unfortunately is one of the consequences of crime.
She sentenced Bampu to six years’ imprisonment, of which one year was suspended for four years on condition he is not convicted of same offence in that time.
Magistrate Jacobs, noting that his court has had to deal with three cases similar to Michinge’s in the past two months, said this is an indication that this type of crime is on the increase and becoming prevalent. As a result, the court is entitled to impose heavier sentences in a bid to deter other people from committing the same crime, he said.
He sentenced Michinge to ten years’ imprisonment, of which two years were conditionally suspended for a period of five years.
Both men have remained in custody since being arrested last year.

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