Man on Aust drug charge

 By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK

A Papua New Guinean appeared before an Australian District Court for allegedly smuggling an unknown quantity of methamphetamine, a drug known as ice, into Australia.

He was refused bail and is scheduled to appear again on July 14 in the Darwin District Court in Northern Territory, Northern Territory Supreme Court liaison and education officer Malika Okeil said 

Charles Kichawen Litau, 53, appeared  in court on Tuesday last week charged with importing/exporting a marketable quantity drugs. 

Although Okeil was unable to comment further, PNG police crime director Assistant Commissioner Donald Yamasombi said Litau, a former Telikom chief executive officer from M’buke Island, Manus, was arrested at Darwin International Airport on March 15 on arrival from the Philippines with an unknown quantity of methamphetamine. 

“His trip was paid and arranged for by a foreign company based in Hong Kong,” Yamasombi said.

He said the suspect had applied for a position through the internet for a chief executive’s job in a chocolate factory in Hong Kong. 

“So he went there to be interviewed,” he said.  

“After being interviewed by the company’s officials, he went to Manila to transit home but at Manila  airport, he met a man that company officials in Hong Kong had arranged for him to meet. The man allegedly gave him an unknown package to take to Darwin to pass on to a man believed to be another company official. 

“It was at Manila that he knew that he would have to return home via Darwin”.

Yamasombi said on arrival in Darwin, he was apprehended and detained by airport officials after the drug was found in his possession. “We cannot do much but assist the Australian police to investigate.”