BY THE GUARDIAN REPORTER
18th August 2013
A press release issued by Hong Kpng airport authorities last Thursday said: “In the first case, customs officers picked a parcel declared as ‘metal gear’ from Tanzania, East Africa, for examination on August 2 … from which they seized 0.7kg of heroin … concealed in a metal gear … it only detected after the metal gear was sawn apart,” the statement said.
“Customs officers of the Airport Command have continued to closely monitor this smuggling method and routing … this morning (August 15), another air consignment parcel declared as ‘metal gear’ from Tanzania was examined … and 0.8kg of heroin found concealed in (exactly) the same way as the first. The drugs are believed to belong to the same syndicate … we are still investigating,” the statement added.
Under Hong Kong’s Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, drug trafficking is a serious offence, carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of $5m (Sh8.1billion).
The head of police at JNIA, Deusdedit Kato, told this newspaper yesterday that his office was yet to receive information on the latest seizure of narcotics in Hong Kong.
“We are not informed … we will make a follow-up for appropriate action,” Kato said.
The August 2 seizure came hardly a week since two Tanzanian men were arrested on July 27, also in Hong Kong, with drugs estimated at a street value of Sh2.2 billion ($1.38m) who were arrested upon arrival from Dar es Salaam via Dubai. The two had left the country for Hong Kong at 5pm on July 26, aboard an Emirates flight.
On Friday, Transport Minister Dr. Harrison Mwakyembe told a news conference in Dar es Salaam that his officer was making a close follow-up on the July 27 arrests in an attempt to gather information on whether the two suspects boarded at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA).
“We are waiting for information from Hong Kong authorities … once we confirm that the suspects smuggled the drugs through one of our international airports we will act accordingly without any hesitation,” Mwakyembe said.
The minister who was responding to questions from reporters had earlier named six airport personnel, one of them a police officer, for facilitating passage to South Africa of the 180kg of drugs valued at Sh8.2bn on July 5, this year. Mwakyembe has ordered for the immediate dismissal of the suspects to pave way for legal action.
Two young females, Agnes Gerald Deal (alias Masogange) and Melisa Edward were arrested on arrival at Oliver Tambo airport in Johannesburg and have since been charged in court.
In the mean time, the US news agency, Associated Press (AP), reported this week that a Tanzania national admitted in court to smuggling heroin inside a laptop.
The news agency reported from Los Angeles that the man faces up to 40 years in prison for trying to smuggle heroin into the United States inside a non-working laptop.
It quoted the City News Service as reporting that the 33-year-old Joseph Mackubi pleaded guilty in a Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday this week.
The report says. “Customs inspectors at LAX (Los Angeles Airport) noticed that Mackubi's laptop seemed unusually heavy when they conducted a secondary screening last October”.
The court was told that when the airport security officers tried to turn the laptop on it didn't start. “When they noticed the laptop appeared tampered with, they opened it and found 800g of heroin,” the AP reported.
Mackubi is said to have traveled to Los Angeles from Nairobi, and he stated that was going to meet a woman he met on the Internet in Alabama.
AP reports further that several recent drug seizures at LAX involved Tanzanian smugglers who traveled a similar path.
Mackubi is due for sentencing on Sept. 11, 2013.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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