Group caught trying to sell alcohol exhibits

 POLICE have arrested a group of men, including public servants, who were trying to sell alcohol kept as exhibits inside a courthouse.

More than 200 cartons of alcohol were kept as court exhibits inside the Mendi district courthouse in Southern Highlands.

Police caught the men as they were in the process of selling the cartons.

Southern Highlands provincial police commander Superintendent Sibron Papoto said the men, including the security guards, were under the influence of alcohol and were trying to remove the cartons from the court premises.

He said the courtroom reeked of alcohol when police went to investigate.

He said a bus had come in earlier and took 30 cartons away. But police managed to nab the driver of the second vehicle which was in the process of removing 10 cartons.

“The police and judiciary are doing work hard to maintain the law and order and we are not happy why the officers went ahead and sold the liquor,” he said.

Poroma police station commander Insp Daniel Yangen said most of the alcohol kept in the courthouse had been confiscated along the national highway in the Nipa-Kutubu district. An alcohol ban was imposed some years ago in the province.

He said it was up to the court how to dispose of the confiscated alcohol.

He said the principal magistrate said New Year was approaching and they did it to clear it off in the court house.

“Today in the police station are 30 cartons only, the rest have been sold out,” he said.

He said more than 10 people had been arrested were detained at the Mendi police station.