By JULIA DAIA BORE
PORT Moresby police detectives yesterday recovered 70 nebulaezer inhalers outside a Boroko pharmacy, fueling suspicion that this might be a part of a racket dealing in the illegal sales of medical equipment.
Two detective constables Kila Danagi and Stanley Dioro were on their way to an office to detain a reported suspect on another matter when they ran into two fleeing youths.
The youths were on the first floor landing of Johnston’s Pharmacy building in Boroko from where they jumped down and ran into the crowd in a bid to lose themselves, one of he two detectives, attached to the Central province police station at 6-Mile, said.
He said the two youths were carrying two knapsacks which they dropped in their haste to get away from the two unsuspecting policemen.
When the detectives searched the bags, they found the inhalers, which are normally used by asthmatic sufferers.
The police officers later told The National they had no idea that the two youths were carrying these medical gadgets until they saw them take flight.
They identified one youth as a Motuan and another as a Goilala.
Duty officer in charge at 6-Mile police station Snr Const Vincent Avakea said as they were not sure where these inhalers came from, they would initially have to establish that first.
“We will check with the Health Department’s medical supply depot first to see if there had been a recent theft or break-in,” he said yesterday.
He said it was likely the youths were getting their supply from somewhere or someone and “may have been on their way to sell them to private medical outlets in the vicinity and unsuspectingly ran into our officers,” Mr Avakea said.
He called on the public and private medical clinics that may have broken into recently, to report the matter to the police to assist their investigation.
“We are looking at a situation where unscrupulous people are obviously benefiting from someone else’s loss and misery,” he said.
Mr Avakea said there was a possibility that there is another racket of illegal distributions of medical items on the streets, he said.
The 6-Mile police stations can be reached on phone 3259381 or 3251733 if any members of the general public have any information regarding the inhalers and associated medical items.