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By KEVIN PAMBA
AN employee of a non-government
organisation is expected to appear before the District Court in Madang
today for allegedly smuggling 190 rounds of live ammunition into the
country from the US last month.
According to police detectives in Madang, Joseph Nuwi Somp, an employee
of Bismarck Ramu, was charged with smuggling under the Customs Act and
for being in possession of firearms under the Firearms Act.
The case was to have been heard yesterday.
However, The National was told by police that this did not happen as it
was found that the suspect had to be charged under one law and the error
in charges had to be rectified before it is brought before the court
again this morning.
Somp, 39, from Samawea village in Kubalia, East Sepik province, is
accused of bringing into the country, 140 slug shots and 50 12-gauge
cartridges when he returned from a summer camp in the US via Sydney.
The police said Somp had slipped through security at Jackson
International Airport from a flight from Sydney with his “cargo” but was
eventually nabbed by police in Madang at the weekend after a tip-off
from intelligence.
The detectives said Somp had checked in at Jackson International Airport
as a transiting passenger bound for Madang on the same day last month.
The police said Somp was, however, offloaded with his cargo due to the
cancellation of the flight he was to connect to Madang.
They said the suspect then posted his cargo of ammunition through Post
PNG as a “post-pac” while he flew to Madang ahead of his cargo.
Two detectives from Port Moresby flew to Madang last weekend and nabbed
Somp with the help of their Madang counterparts.
The arrest occurred after undercover detectives waited at the post
office and later caught a man sent by Somp to pick up his express mail
cargo on Saturday.
The man fell to the police trap and led them to Somp who was arrested,
charged and remanded at the Jomba police cells.
His cargo of ammunitions is being held by police.
 
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