Female student faces drug charge

 By GABRIEL FITO

POLICE in Wewak last Friday caught a 19-year-old female high school student from Eastern Highlands as she was about to board a dinghy to Vanimo allegedly with 4kg of marijuana.

The student of mixed East Sepik and Eastern Highlands parentage is in Grade 11.

The suspect told police she conspired with a man in Wewak who sent her K500 to buy the marijuana in Goroka and ship it to Wewak.

“I packed the drug in a box and came down to Madang last Tuesday and boarded the ship to Wewak,” police said the student told them. 

“I stayed with this man until today (last Friday) when we were about to get into a dinghy to Vanimo to sell this drug for money when police caught me.

“I gave in to his request to assist in this syndicate because as a student, I wanted to exchange my share of the smoke for a laptop that I need,” she told police.

Sgt Paul Achaluen said the marijuana would have fetched K100,000 or an undisclosed number of high powered firearms in Indonesia.

He said police acted on a tip-off and surrounded the town area but the man escaped.

The suspect was arrested and charged with being in possession of marijuana and is expected to appear before the Wewak District Court for mention this morning.