Mother arrested in attempt to send drugs

Source:
The National, Friday 06th January 2012

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
A MOTHER of five has been has been charged with possession of a dangerous drug after she was caught at Mt Hagen’s Kagamuga airport trying to send four kilograms of dried marijuana worth K20,000 by air.
The woman claimed she had no idea of the contents of a box that a clansman of her husband had asked her to send to the mining township of Kiunga.
The packet of marijuana was in plastic bag and tightly taped to conceal the smell.
The packet was hidden at the bottom of a box filled with onions and other vegetables, police said.
Airlines PNG staff became suspicious when the woman tried to send a box weighing about 7kg.
They opened the box and found the packet of marijuana at the bottom. They called airport police who arrested the woman.
A policeman said the woman had tried to give the arresting officer K100 on the way to the Mt Hagen police station where she was charged.
The woman said she had been given the box by a clansman of her husband who asked her to send it to a Kiunga address in Western.
The man, who was waiting outside the airport, fled when police arrived, she said.
Provincial police commander Kaiglo Ambane said many women had been arrested at the airport for smuggling illegal goods such as ammunition into the province.
They also try transporting marijuana out of the province.
Ambane said husbands used their wives or sisters to send drugs on flights to contacts in other provinces.
The woman is due to appear in Mt Hagen district court today.