Courier driver pleads guilty in drug case

A DRIVER for a courier company has admitted in court to be in possession of marijuana which he was planning to send on a flight from Mt Hagen to Kokopo.
Benny Livinai, 30, from Kaubwaga village in the Samarai-Murua district of Milne Bay, had earlier this month denied the charge.
Police said he was caught by police at the Kagamuga airport trying to send 5.4 kg of marijuana to Kokopo on Tuesday, March 12.
The father of two initially told the court that someone had given him the package at Mt Hagen and paid the airfreight fees.
He apologised to the court for what he had done and said he had two kids and a wife.
Naomi Joel, a receptionist at the courier company, told the court that Livinai was only doing his job as a driver to pick up and send cargoes.
She told the court that they normally checked cargoes before sending them out.
Joel said they checked the package Livinai brought in and discovered marijuana inside. They alerted the police.
Magistrate Jacinta Doa is expected to make a ruling tomorrow.