Drug-run suspected

Main Stories

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
POLICE suspect that the aircraft which entered the country illegally on Sunday and crash-landed on a makeshift airstrip outside Port Moresby was on a drug-run.
Police Commissioner David Manning in a statement yesterday said officers of the Australian Federal Police and local police investigating the case believed that members of a gang were to have loaded drugs onto the aircraft which later failed to take off.
He said pilot David John Cutmore, who turned himself in at the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby on Tuesday morning, was assisting police with their investigations.
Cutmore, who is facing a charge of illegal entry into the country, is being provided consular assistance by the high commission.
Police alleged that the pilot had tried to collect the drugs from the local group between 1pm and 2.30pm last Sunday. But the aircraft crashed while attempting to take off from the remote airstrip at Papa Lealea.
“We believe that local members of this criminal group (then) assisted the pilot and retrieved the drugs from the plane,” Manning said.
“The investigation into the location of the drugs continues.”
Manning urged locals with any information relating to members of the gang or their activities, or the whereabouts of the drugs to contact police. Police already have some information on the local men.
“Those persons are encouraged to come forward to police as we will find them,” Manning said.
Meanwhile, the local company registered as the owner of the Cessna 402C twin-engine aircraft, Ravenpol No 69 Ltd, belonged to Geoffrey Bull Paul.
According to information obtained yesterday, Paul had died in Port Moresby last September after an alleged stabbing incident. And according to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) report yesterday, the director of the Australian-based Avlease Pty Ltd Ian Scheyer said he had no idea why the plane was listed as belonging to the company under the Australian Government Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
“I can put my hand on my heart and say we’ve never operated it,” he said.

23 comments

  • Please , the appropriate bodies step in hard on this case and persecute all that are involved in this alleged drug trafficking business.

  • Keep the pilot locked up in the cells or send him to bomana for illegally entering png and the transporting of dangerous drugs!

  • Light is already lighting PNG, nothing is hidden, if you think you are doing something that no one watching, these days are over, they closed when we closed 2019 for 2020, 2020 is new year with new beginnings, with a light that remove darkness. when the time is up, its up to expose things done in the darkness…..Sorry for those who are still living in darkness enjoying darkness, you will receive your reward…..

  • I don’t think PNG police or our poor security systems would have detected this illegal activity. It must have been operating out of PNG for a long time. It luck that the plane crashed before take off may be due to overload.

    Make all criminal elements involved be prosecuted under toughest laws of criminal justice.

  • Investigate and do arrest as soon as possible. They are all proven guilty already.

    Yes, our physical defense system are weak as drug dealers can see but in spiritually we are strongest as we believed in the God of Israel.

  • TWO MYSTERIOUS FLIGHTS HAVE LANDED IN PNG

    THE CHINESE PLANE landed without notice and guess what??? …rise in covid-19 cases in Pom.

    DRUG RUNS BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND PNG ………got caught!!! This is a TRANSNATIONAL CRIME AND REQUIRES INTERPOL INVESTIGATIONS

  • Get that pilot to Bomana and he deserves to be locked up.
    He cannot back to Australia, must punish here.

  • That’s money laundering right there!
    Charge and imprison the pilot and escalate this matter to Interpol for further investigations.

  • There are rumors in the grapevine that PNG policemen were there on the scene helping/assisting this illegal activities, loading the cargo and when it couldn’t lift off maybe due to overloading and crashed, the same policemen assisted in removing and putting the cargo away hidden. Police Commissioner need to check and screen his men closely before asking information and lead ups from the general public. Can that be confirmed???

  • Interrogate Cutmore, he was at the scene and witnessed all movements so we can tell the Nation if Police were involved and how he got involved or was he blindfolded and was at gunpoint?
    Probably his statement will spill out the truth, otherwise, we will go around in circles, until it dies off, as for all genuine services, payment is always after the service is rendered, dirty services are PREPAID cause it includes payment for all actions after if it is successful then good and if unsuccessful you have to tell a fairytale

  • Does Papua New Guinea have a radar system to monitor the entire PNG air space which will determine aircraft landing in remote places before take-off so that they can establish when, where and why small aircraft such as the Cessna 402C twin-engine, Ravenpol No 69 is passed our border in the air and about to land in an unauthorized landing pad just out of the Nation’s Capital? Then landed undetected.

  • Corrupted police men were involved in the loading and unloading. Full investigation is eminent and all involved must be dealt with accordingly. Police men involved must be dismissed and terminated immediately.

  • We already know of certain people who have used their clubs or trade stores as fronts and have become overnight millionaires. Many stupid people think these crooks have been making money through their clubs or trade stores but it has been a big question mark for smarter people to wonder how these guys were making thousands just by selling alcohol in their clubs or trade stores when everyone else can’t make that kind of money.

    The club called WHITE HOUSE at the 5mile settlement is one such shanty club from which the owner has become an overnight millionaire. He must be investigated!

  • ABC also claimed but not reported by National? Dead G B Paul was President of Paius Wingti’s PDM Party – Peoples Democratic Movement Party

  • Imagine the penalties for such cases for PNG citizens in Australia or Indonesia. The laws in those country applies on our citizens accordingly when they breach it. The Australian Pilot should be meet the same fate. Send him to Bomana.

  • Good on you Terry, take it across to these Fraud squad, with some more evidence, so these people can prosecuted for the good of this nation…

  • Yes, if a PNG citizen been held in Australia, he or she will be locked up in the cell. so for he entering PNG illegally, Drugs, Breaking the SOE, Breaking CAA Laws so and so fort. He should be locked in BOMANA like illegal fishermen caught around PNG waters. Lock him up.

  • We are waiting to see how we go with this case. Whatever laws this pilot has broken, he should be held accountable to them. He is already a criminal. Allow the rule of law to take its course.

  • This guy David worked in Melbourne at a company called “Amber Aviation Academy” as a flight instructor/pilot teaching students. Not a good role model in my eyes and may have some association linked behind it. I have had friends of friends say something dodgy may be happening here and should be investigated further.

  • I no longer trust PNG Royal Constabulary to handle any case like this, let AFP to handle the task with assistant from our local police. This may be an inside job involving our policemen.whoever found to be guilty,let the law dealt with it.

  • Nothing will never be solved in this corrupted nation we have pending serious crimes
    cases caking up the whole hierarchy. Poor country citizens we have suffered enough thru
    corrupted bribery deals. The pilot must be sentence life year in prison (Bomana).

Comments are closed.