‘Student’ drug trafficker caught

By JACOB POK
A MAN who claimed to be a university student was arrested by police at the Jackson Airport in Port Moresby yesterday for allegedly smuggling in a suitcase full of marijuana.
The suspect, from Henganofi in Eastern Highlands, was caught by Gordon-based policemen who acted on a tip off.
Police said the man had packed the 12.5kg bags of marijuana into a suitcase and had covered them with garden vegetables.
He told police he had transported the drugs by road from Goroka to Lae in Morobe before boarding an Airlines PNG aircraft to Port Moresby.
He was caught at about 6.45pm yesterday and taken to the Gordon police station where he was charged with possessing the dangerous drugs and locked up at the Boroko cells.
He had told police he was having school fee problems and wanted to sell the drugs to settle his university fees.
He said it was his first time to travel to Port Moresby.
Police also confiscated two othe­r bags full of marijuana but the owner had escaped.
Police believed the bags belonged to a female passenger because there were female
clothes found among the illicit drugs.
Police investigations are continuing.