Police have leads to drug syndicate in country: Manning

POLICE have “leads” to members of a drugs syndicate operating in the country and involved in the recent K160 million drug bust, says Commissioner David Manning.
“We have evidence that suggest a syndicate is at play in the country and we have established certain leads,” he said.
Manning was responding to questions on whether high-profile people in PNG were involved in the foiled attempt to transport more than 600kg of cocaine to Australia on an aircraft on July 26 at Papa-Lealea outside Port Moresby.
“Enquiries are ongoing (plus) the process of eliminating suspects and information received,” Manning said.
“It is a very lengthy and exhaustive process and is two years in the making.
“A lot of information has been shared across jurisdictions internationally in particular with the Australian Federal Police.”
He said more information would be released to the public once investigations were concluded.
He said last Friday that the 28 bags of cocaine weighing about 23kg each were to be taken to Australia by the Cessna 402C aircraft which crashed on take-off at a makeshift airstrip in Papa-Lealea.
“As to where the drugs came from, that is subject to investigations. We should have answers in the next couple of days,” he said.
“This flight was solely for the purpose of moving cocaine to Australia. We do know of items brought in to gift the syndicate.”
Manning said evidence presented so far had not pointed to any ties with Milne Bay.
“The flight originated from Australia and was to return to Australia.”